CAPSTONE Mission: 30 August 2023 Update

CAPSTONE Mission: 30 August 2023 Update

Serving as an orbital pathfinder for the Gateway, the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE™) spacecraft has operated successfully for almost 300 days. During that time, the CubeSat has demonstrated its key functions, entering and maintaining its unique orbit — a near rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO) — and operating a peer-to-peer navigation technology that incorporates relative tracking between two vehicles. (more…)

Plotting Orbits: Using Math and Lessons Learned to Plan Orbits for the Lunar Gateway

Plotting Orbits: Using Math and Lessons Learned to Plan Orbits for the Lunar Gateway

For several years now, Advanced Space has analyzed orbital dynamics for the Lunar Gateway. Supporting the Gateway’s Mission Design and Navigation (MDNAV) team, located primarily at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, these analyses have helped inform station requirements; develop concepts of operations; plan for contingencies; and assist with other planning activities. Our experience with operating the CAPSTONE™ mission in the unique near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO) environment has enabled us to help NASA understand the best ways to operate spacecraft in that orbit. These results have been shared with the Gateway team and at industry conferences. (more…)

PILOTing Through the Magnetosphere: Using Mission Design to Advance Science

PILOTing Through the Magnetosphere: Using Mission Design to Advance Science

Not so long ago (2022), Advanced Space collaborated with a team of science and engineering organizations to help design a science mission to study the effects of the biggest space weather maker in the solar system: the Sun. The mission concept, called Plasma Imaging, LOcal measurement, and Tomographic experiment (PILOT), is designed to measure the flow of cold, dense plasma into and out of Earth’s magnetosphere to better understand how the interaction between Sun and Earth’s planetary magnetic field defines the evolution of our planetary atmosphere. To measure these flows in real time requires a fleet of 34 satellites revolving around the Earth in two different orbits to capture plasma movement at different spatial and temporal scales.
(more…)