NASA: Contact lost with Capstone spacecraft on way to test moon orbit

[Buster's Uncle]

NASA: Contact lost with spacecraft on way to test moon orbit
2h ago
Associated Press


WASHINGTON (AP) — NASA said Tuesday it has lost contact with a $32.7 million spacecraft headed to the moon to test out a lopsided lunar orbit, but agency engineers are hopeful they can fix the problem.



© Provided by Associated Press
Rebecca Rogers, systems engineer, left, takes dimension measurements of the CAPSTONE spacecraft in April 2022, at Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, Inc., in Irvine, Calif. NASA said Tuesday, July 5, that it has lost contact with a $32.7 million spacecraft headed to moon to test out a lopsided lunar orbit, but agency engineers are hopeful they can fix the problem. (Dominic Hart/NASA via AP)


After one successful communication and a second partial one on Monday, the space agency said it could no longer communicate with the spacecraft called Capstone. Engineers are trying to find the cause of the communications drop-off and are optimistic they can fix it, NASA spokesperson Sarah Frazier said Tuesday.

The spacecraft, which launched from New Zealand on June 28, had spent nearly a week in Earth orbit and had been successfully kick-started on its way to the moon, when contact was lost, Frazier said.

The 55-pound satellite is the size of a microwave oven and will be the first spacecraft to try out this oval orbit, which is where NASA wants to stage its Gateway outpost. Gateway would serve as a staging point for astronauts before they descend to the lunar surface.

The orbit balances the gravities of Earth and the moon and so requires little maneuvering and therefore fuel and allows the satellite — or a space station — to stay in constant contact with Earth.


https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/nasa-contact-lost-with-spacecraft-on-way-to-test-moon-orbit

[Unorthodox]

There's actually a LOT going on with capstone.  No idea what the communications problem is, but I'm betting there's a 'turn it off and turn it back on' programmed into the thing if it doesn't communicate after so long, and that's how they're hoping to 'fix' it. 


Instead of going for the traditional Hohmann transfer (burn to the moon and then break to reach orbit), it's going for a ballistic transfer, where you shoot it out to the middle of nowhere in front of the moon, allow earth's gravity to slow it, and start pulling it back, at which point the moon's orbit brings it into position to capture the object. 

It's also shooting for L2 Lagrange.  Theoretical point where gravity between the earth, moon, and sun cancel each other out to see just how much it actually would require to maintain that orbit.  (since gravity is not a stable field and fluctuates, it will never be a perfectly cancelled out zone) 

[Geo]

It's also shooting for L2 Lagrange.  Theoretical point where gravity between the earth, moon, and sun cancel each other out to see just how much it actually would require to maintain that orbit.  (since gravity is not a stable field and fluctuates, it will never be a perfectly cancelled out zone)

So NASA is trying a polar orbit (with perigee above the Lunar North Pole) which also intersects at the Lunar L2 'point'?
At least an earlier article about this craft mentioned a polar orbit, not a 'stationary' Lagrange point.

[Unorthodox]

Yeah, sorry, it's not going for an L2 ORBIT, but it's passing through L2 on it's ballistic entry to the moon's orbit.  They're doing a halo orbit of the moon from there out, where it basically makes a giant oblong orbit that will always face earth, which would be key to communicating with a permanent installation at L2. 

[Geo]

Ah, that makes sense.