NASA engineers had an almost two-week battle with a space probe refusing to reply to instructions.
CAPSTONE, an experimental spacecraft on the moon meant to check an orbit for NASA’s deliberate Gateway space station, didn’t take heed to communications from Earth for 11 days, the company mentioned in a blog post (opens in new tab) Wednesday (Feb. 8).
“The spacecraft remained total wholesome and on-course all through the difficulty, sending telemetry knowledge again to Earth,” the company mentioned of CAPSTONE’s challenge, which started on Jan. 26. The spacecraft rebooted itself on Monday (Feb. 6), nonetheless, restoring its potential to take heed to instructions from residence.
That is not the primary time CAPSTONE (quick for “Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Expertise Operations and Navigation Experiment”)Â encountered drama on its mission, exhibiting how difficult it’s to run a cubesat-sized mission in deep space close to the moon.Â
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CAPSTONE launched simply effective atop a Rocket Lab Electron booster on June 28, 2022, on behalf of NASA with spacecraft operators at Superior Area and Terran Orbital. The crew lost contact with the probe on July 4 throughout a stage separation maneuver, nonetheless.Â
Sorting that challenge solely took a day, however one other  glitch occurred two months later throughout an engine burn to appropriate the spacecraft’s trajectory. That drawback briefly pressured the spacecraft into a protective safe mode consequently.Â
As soon as engineers discovered the valve inflicting this challenge, they managed to get the probe back on track to be the first-ever cubesat on the moon on Nov. 13, 2022. Since then, NASA officers reported on Wednesday, CAPSTONE has completed greater than 12 near-rectilinear halo orbits as a pathfinder for Gateway. That is double the unique manifest of six.
The orbit permits for a detailed method to the doubtless water-rich moon’s south pole, making landings simpler for the Artemis program which will put astronauts there as quickly as 2025 with Artemis 3. It’s fortuitous that CAPSTONE reached its orbit, as one other small NASA spacecraft known as Lunar Flashlight needed to abandon that task this week following a number of propulsion points en route.
As a know-how demonstration mission, CAPSTONE is predicted to run into bother each infrequently. Different, smaller glitches have occurred with the spacecraft throughout its lunar sojourn — however the mission stays on observe for now.
CAPSTONE was speculated to carry out a navigation check, developed by Superior Area, to make use of knowledge between at the least two spacecraft for firming up a satellite’s location the place GPS is just not out there.Â
The long-running NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter was prepared for the check and acquired the sign, however CAPSTONE was unable to get the “crosslink ranging measurements” it wanted from the returned sign, NASA officers mentioned. Extra checks are deliberate for this navigation system within the coming weeks.
As a optimistic, nonetheless, CAPSTONE has required far fewer maneuvers in orbit to remain on observe than what the mission known as for. At first, NASA anticipated the crew would wish one “orbit upkeep” firing every time the spacecraft circled the moon. However in 12 orbits across the moon, CAPSTONE solely wanted to fireplace its engine twice.
“This reduces threat and complexity for the mission and informs plans for future spacecraft flying on this orbit, like Gateway,” NASA officers wrote.
Elizabeth Howell is the co-author of “Why Am I Taller (opens in new tab)?” (ECW Press, 2022; with Canadian astronaut Dave Williams), a guide about space medication. Observe her on Twitter @howellspace (opens in new tab). Observe us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or Facebook (opens in new tab).
