Aug 19, 2022 | Papers & Presentations
Presented at the 36th Annual Small Satellite Conference 2022
Advanced Space: Tom Gardner, Brad Cheetham, Jeff Parker, Alec Forsman, Ethan Kayser, Michael Thompson, Conner Ott, Lauren DeMoudt, Matt Bolliger, Arlen Kam
Terran Orbital: Keith Thompson, Tristan Latchu, Rebecca Rogers
Stellar Exploration: Brennan Bryant, Tomas Svitek
ABSTRACT
The cislunar environment is about to get much busier and with this increase in traffic comes an increase in the demand for limited resources such as Earth based tracking of and communications with assets operating in and around the Moon. With the number of NASA, commercial, and international missions to the Moon growing rapidly, the need to make these future endeavors as efficient as possible is a challenge that is being solved now. Advanced Space is aiming to mitigate these resource limitations by enabling spacecraft in the cislunar environment to navigate autonomously and reduce the need for oversubscribed ground assets for navigation and maneuver planning. (more…)
Jul 27, 2022 | CAPSTONE Mission
Spacecraft remains on target to test navigation technology and lunar operations to support NASA’s Moon missions under Artemis programs
It is hard to believe we launched CAPSTONE almost a month ago. We have encountered many variables that have kept this mission exciting, and the mission operators have been active. The Advanced Space Astrodynamics and Navigation Engineers have been busy for years leading up to this and just as busy this last month as CAPSTONE flies. An assumption may be that a small satellite means less work but in actuality the effort is just as great if not more so. Small satellites with small budgets and size restrictions require more creativity and calculated steps to ensure precision and execution through the process. (more…)
Jul 12, 2022 | CAPSTONE Mission
CAPSTONE achieved another positive milestone today after the spacecraft executed the second scheduled trajectory correction maneuver (TCM) today at approximately 9:30 am MT. The spacecraft burn was relatively small as it consumed ~35 grams of fuel. The purpose of the maneuver completes the corrective actions of the spacecraft separation from the Lunar Photon – a necessary and routine step to ensure the transfer trajectory remains on track. Even though this was a small maneuver, this further validates the spacecraft design, which was optimized for precise orbital operations. (more…)
Jul 9, 2022 | CAPSTONE Mission
The CAPSTONE mission team has rescheduled the trajectory correction maneuver (TCM) originally targeting for this morning to review additional data and perform additional analysis to support modeling of the spacecraft performance during maneuvers. The rescheduled plan does not have any significant impact on the size of the planned correction maneuver which was part of the of TCM executed two days prior. The spacecraft is healthy, communicating with NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN) and in a nominal state. (more…)
Jul 8, 2022 | CAPSTONE Mission
As we wrap up an active week for CAPSTONE, and happy to report the spacecraft is healthy and everything is operating nominally. We want to give a big thank you to everyone involved. To Rocket Lab, thank you for the launch and successful separation from Photon. To NASA, NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN), Space Dynamics Laboratory (SDL), thank you for the support during our troubleshooting and resolution. And a big thanks to our teams at Terran Orbital’s Mission Operations Center, NASA’s DSN, and our own team in our Advanced Space Operations Center. Plus, we appreciate the well wishes from customers, industry partners and friends. (more…)
