Posted on 11/14/2022 8:55:00 AM PST by BenLurkin
NASA’s Artemis program took an important step forward this weekend, with CAPSTONE finally reaching its destination—a near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO) around the Moon. The 55-pound cubesat will now test this promising orbit in preparation for the Gateway lunar space station.
CAPSTONE, short for Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment, reached NRHO on Sunday, November 13, according to an Advanced Space press release. Later this week, the $33 million cubesat will attempt a pair of tiny clean-up maneuvers to confirm its placement in the lunar orbit. In addition to being the first human-built device to operate in NRHO, CAPSTONE “is the first CubeSat to fly to and operate at the Moon,” Advanced Space said.
(Excerpt) Read more at gizmodo.com ...
Spacecraft orbiting the Earth have remained in space since the 1950's and may last for centuries more, but spacecraft orbiting close to the moon can crash within weeks. The reason for this is the lunar gravity field is lumpy, with geological features making the smooth orbits of space probes distort until they hit the surface.Why Do Lunar Satellites Eventually Crash Into The Moon?
Scott Manley | May 22, 2019
Interesting!
A couple more of SM’s:
Apollo 10’s Lunar Module Snoopy Is Lost In Space - Could We Bring it Home?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXVYZm9epmU
Is Apollo 11’s Lunar Module Still In Orbit Around The Moon 52 Years Later?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBHbLV7xEhc
For related topics regarding Earth, the rest of the "Potsdam Gravity Potato" keyword, sorted:
Since when did this woke crap get elevated to the level of 'science'?
see my tagline...
Apollo Crash Sites: Lunar Modules & S-IVBs
Ghost Giraffe
54.5K subscribers
430,294 views
July 21, 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4BxDyYLzzc
After landing on the Moon, what ever happened to the Lunar Ascent Modules? Turns out they were crashed onto the moon for Science! Here are all the known crash sites of the LM Ascent Stages, S-IVBs and why they were impacted on the Moon. Plus a brief history on how they were found by independent researchers.
First Known Use
circa 1877, in the meaning defined
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cislunar
Ya got me!
Was in the biz for 45 years and don't recall the term. (although I worked earth orbit programs)
Would you prefer the more inclusive ‘queerlunar’?
The space program in 1877 was a lot different though...
Bob Farquhar came up with the idea back in ‘69 and called it Halo orbit only, not Near Rectilinear.
Halo orbits work around the stable libration points as well, which is what they did in ‘78 with ISEE.
https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/remembering-robert-willard-farquhar
No to mention the US Navy’s Clementine Moon Mapping Mission, which went silent after taking still classified moon mapping images, then turned up a few years ago in a solar orbit still transmitting ...
Clementine was a masterpiece of low-energy trajectories to destinations, as well as being pretty small for its time. Hi-res, low altitude pics of nearly the entire lunar surface were made for the first time.
[snip] After leaving lunar orbit, a malfunction in one of the on-board computers on May 7 [1994] at 14:39 UTC (9:39 AM EST) caused a thruster to fire until it had used up all of its fuel, leaving the spacecraft spinning at about 80 RPM with no spin control. This made the planned continuation of the mission, a flyby of the near-Earth asteroid Geographos, impossible. The spacecraft remained in geocentric orbit and continued testing the spacecraft components until the end of mission. [/snip]
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LCROSS/searchforwater/clementine.html
That’s the official story. However, there is another article perhaps on FR that details its reemergence a few years back.
There was a ludicrous claim that there’s an alien ruin (or maybe it’s still occupied) on the Moon, and that somehow that fiction is related to the loss of the Clementine probe. I remember reading about it on a leftover copy after finishing my paper route on Mars. ;^)
https://freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/1607979/posts?page=15#15
Not “an alien” instillation, but hundreds on both sides of the moon.
Besides there is nothing to say the putative installations are not a human or at least a previous Earth civilization we no nothing about.
More over there are many formations on the moon that have no geological explanation of their formation.
The lunar surface was made the way it is by impacts. The only artificial things there were put there by humans in the past 60 years. That makes sense, since ETs would have little reason to build there and not here.
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