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Capstone
CAPSTONE (Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment) is a lunar orbiter that will test and verify the calculated orbital stability planned for the Lunar Gateway space station. The spacecraft is a 12-unit CubeSat that will also test a navigation system that will measure its position relative to NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) without relying on ground stations. It was launched on 28 June 2022, arrived in lunar orbit on 14 November 2022, and is scheduled to orbit for six months. Background The Lunar Gateway is an in-development space station being planned by several national space agencies since at least 2018, including NASA, European Space Agency (ESA) and Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The Gateway is planned to be placed in a novel lunar orbit that has not been used previously, where it is expected to serve as a communications hub, science laboratory, short-term habitation module, and holding area for rovers and other robo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rocket Lab Photon
Photon is a satellite bus based on Rocket Lab's kick stage. Development In April 2019, Rocket Lab announced plans to create a new satellite bus, named Photon, to launch small payloads into Earth orbit. Its goal was to reduce the complexity and development time for customers, enabling technology demonstrations without the complexity of developing a full spacecraft. At the same time the company was aiming to broaden its portfolio and diversify its revenue streams. In October 2019, it announced that it aimed to launch its first mission as soon as the fourth quarter of 2020. The company also announced it was targeting lunar orbit as part of its services offered with Photon, enabled by a new bi-propellant propulsion system. The development of Photon included working with a number of potential customers, with significant interest from government agencies. The first few Photon satellites would be technology demonstrators before transitioning to operational launches for customers, wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Artemis Program
The Artemis program is a robotic and human Moon exploration program led by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) along with three partner agencies: European Space Agency (ESA), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The Artemis program intends to reestablish a human presence on the Moon for the first time since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. The major components of the program are the Space Launch System (SLS), Orion spacecraft, Lunar Gateway space station and the commercial Human Landing Systems. The program's long-term goal is to establish a permanent base camp on the Moon and facilitate human missions to Mars. The Artemis program is a collaboration of government space agencies and private spaceflight companies, bound together by the Artemis Accords and supporting contracts. As of July 2022, twenty-one countries have signed the accords, including traditional U.S. space partners (such as the Euro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Near-rectilinear Halo Orbit
A near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO) is a halo orbit with slightly curved – or nearly straight – sides between close passes with an orbiting body. The 2022 CAPSTONE mission is the first such orbit in cislunar space, and this Moon-centric orbit will serve as a staging area for future lunar missions. The orbit could be used with other bodies in the Solar System and beyond. A halo orbit is a periodic, three-dimensional orbit associated with one of the L1, L2 and L3 Lagrange points. Near-rectilinear means that some segments of the orbit have a greater curvature than those of an elliptical orbit of the same maximum diameter, and other segments have a curvature less than that of an elliptical orbit of the same maximum diameter (taking maximum diameter as that of the smallest circle that contains the whole of the orbit). In the extreme case all segments have zero curvature with four points with infinite curvature (''i.e.'' a polygon). Such a non-elliptical orbit would require at lea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Near-rectilinear Halo Orbit
A near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO) is a halo orbit with slightly curved – or nearly straight – sides between close passes with an orbiting body. The 2022 CAPSTONE mission is the first such orbit in cislunar space, and this Moon-centric orbit will serve as a staging area for future lunar missions. The orbit could be used with other bodies in the Solar System and beyond. A halo orbit is a periodic, three-dimensional orbit associated with one of the L1, L2 and L3 Lagrange points. Near-rectilinear means that some segments of the orbit have a greater curvature than those of an elliptical orbit of the same maximum diameter, and other segments have a curvature less than that of an elliptical orbit of the same maximum diameter (taking maximum diameter as that of the smallest circle that contains the whole of the orbit). In the extreme case all segments have zero curvature with four points with infinite curvature (''i.e.'' a polygon). Such a non-elliptical orbit would require at lea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Curie (rocket Engine)
Curie is a liquid-propellant rocket engine designed and manufactured by Rocket Lab. A monopropellant is used for the propulsion of the third stage/kicker stage of the Electron rocket, as well as the Photon. The composition of the propellant is a trade secret. The kicker stage rocket produces of thrust, and has a specific impulse of approximately 320 seconds. It was first used on 21 January 2018 during Rocket Lab's first successful orbital rocket launch, and helped to boost two small CubeSats, the weather and ship-tracking Lemur-2 CubeSats built by the company Spire Global, into a circular orbit. Description The Curie engine, named after Polish scientist Marie Skłodowska–Curie, is a small liquid-propellant rocket engine designed to release "small satellites from the constricting parameters of primary payload orbits and enables them to fully reach their potential, including faster deployment of small satellite constellations and better positioning for Earth imaging". It is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lunar Gateway
The Lunar Gateway, or simply Gateway, is the first planned extraterrestrial space station in lunar orbit intended to serve as a solar-powered communication hub, science laboratory, and short-term habitation module for government-agency astronauts, as well as a holding area for rovers and other robots. It is a multinational collaborative project involving four of the International Space Station partner agencies: NASA, European Space Agency (ESA), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and Canadian Space Agency (CSA). It is planned to be both the first space station beyond low Earth orbit and the first space station to orbit the Moon. Formerly known as the Deep Space Gateway (DSG), the station was renamed Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway (LOP-G) in NASA's 2018 proposal for the 2019 United States federal budget. When the budgeting process was complete, US$332 million had been committed by Congress to preliminary studies. The science disciplines to be studied on the Gatew ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rocket Lab Electron
Electron is a two-stage, partially recoverable orbital launch vehicle developed by Rocket Lab, an American aerospace company with a wholly owned New Zealand subsidiary. Electron was developed to service the commercial small satellite launch market. Its Rutherford engines are the first electric-pump-fed engine to power an orbital-class rocket. Electron is often flown with a kickstage or Rocket Lab's Photon spacecraft. Although the rocket was designed to be expendable, Rocket Lab has recovered the first stage twice and is working towards the capability of reusing the booster. The Flight 26 (F26) booster has featured the first helicopter catch recovery attempt. In December 2016, Electron completed flight qualification. The first rocket was launched on 25 May 2017 in a flight called "It's a Test", reaching space but not achieving orbit due to a glitch in communication equipment on the ground. During its second flight on 21 January 2018, Electron reached orbit and deployed three Cu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Power And Propulsion Element
The Power and Propulsion Element (PPE), previously known as the Asteroid Redirect Vehicle propulsion system, is a planned solar electric ion propulsion module being developed by Maxar Technologies for NASA. It is one of the major components of the Gateway. The PPE will allow access to the entire lunar surface and a wide range of lunar orbits and double as a space tug for visiting craft. The PPE originally started development at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a part of the now cancelled Asteroid Redirect Mission, but is now led and managed by the NASA John H. Glenn Research Center, in Cleveland, Ohio. When ARM was cancelled, the solar electric propulsion was repurposed as the PPE for the Gateway. The PPE is designed to be able to transfer the reusable Gateway to lunar orbit. It will also serve as the communications center of the Gateway. The PPE is intended to have a mass of 8–9 tons and the capability to generate 50 kW of solar electric power using Roll Out Sola ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surface is made up of the ocean, dwarfing Earth's polar ice, lakes, and rivers. The remaining 29% of Earth's surface is land, consisting of continents and islands. Earth's surface layer is formed of several slowly moving tectonic plates, which interact to produce mountain ranges, volcanoes, and earthquakes. Earth's liquid outer core generates the magnetic field that shapes the magnetosphere of the Earth, deflecting destructive solar winds. The atmosphere of the Earth consists mostly of nitrogen and oxygen. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere like carbon dioxide (CO2) trap a part of the energy from the Sun close to the surface. Water vapor is widely present in the atmosphere and forms clouds that cover most of the planet. More solar e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Outer Space
Outer space, commonly shortened to space, is the expanse that exists beyond Earth and its atmosphere and between celestial bodies. Outer space is not completely empty—it is a near-perfect vacuum containing a low density of particles, predominantly a plasma of hydrogen and helium, as well as electromagnetic radiation, magnetic fields, neutrinos, dust, and cosmic rays. The baseline temperature of outer space, as set by the background radiation from the Big Bang, is . The plasma between galaxies is thought to account for about half of the baryonic (ordinary) matter in the universe, having a number density of less than one hydrogen atom per cubic metre and a kinetic temperature of millions of kelvins. Local concentrations of matter have condensed into stars and galaxies. Studies indicate that 90% of the mass in most galaxies is in an unknown form, called dark matter, which interacts with other matter through gravitational but not electromagnetic forces. Observations s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boulder, Colorado
Boulder is a home rule city that is the county seat and most populous municipality of Boulder County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, making it the 12th most populous city in Colorado. Boulder is the principal city of the Boulder, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area and an important part of the Front Range Urban Corridor. Boulder is located at the base of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, at an elevation of above sea level. Boulder is northwest of the Colorado state capital of Denver. It is home of the main campus of the University of Colorado, the state's largest university. History On November 7, 1861, the Colorado General Assembly passed legislation to locate the University of Colorado in Boulder. On September 20, 1875, the first cornerstone was laid for the first building (Old Main) on the CU campus. The university officially opened on September 5, 1877. In 1907, Boulder adopted an anti- saloon ordinanc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Technology Demonstration
A technology demonstration (or tech demo), also known as demonstrator model, is a prototype, rough example or an otherwise incomplete version of a conceivable product or future system, put together as proof of concept with the primary purpose of showcasing the possible applications, feasibility, performance and method of an idea for a new technology. They can be used as demonstrations to the investors, partners, journalists or even to potential customers in order to convince them of the viability of the chosen approach, or to test them on ordinary users. Computers and gaming Technology demonstrations are often used in the computer industry, emerging as an important tool in response to short development cycles, in both software and hardware development. * Computer game developers use tech demos to rouse and maintain interest to titles still in development (because game engines are usually ready before the art is finished) and to ensure functionality by early testing. Short segmen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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