Does Anything Orbit the Moon? We Asked a NASA Technologist

[Music] foreign [Music] NASA's lunar reconnaissance Orbiter and a handful of other active spacecraft are currently orbiting the moon one of the really cool cubesats I'm excited about is NASA Capstone which will be joining these other spacecraft in orbit around the Moon Capstone stands for the Sith lunar autonomous Positioning Systems Technology operations and navigation experiment it serves as a Pathfinder mission for Gateway as part of NASA's Artemis program Gateway is a space station that will orbit the Moon and provide a place for astronauts to resupply and prepare for their trips down to the lunar surface did you know that orbits around the moon are very unstable the moon's gravity is extraordinarily lumpy so it's really hard to stay in orbit around the Moon if the satellite orbits too close to the lunar surface the moon's gravity might cause the satellite to actually crash into the moon on the other hand if the satellite is slightly too far away from the Moon the Earth's gravity will pull the spacecraft out flaking it away from the Moon altogether what's really cool about Capstone is that it's the first spacecraft to test the entrance and sustainability of a very unique near Richter linear Halo orbit also known as nrho this nrho orbit is at a precise balance point between the gravities of the Earth and the moon which offers a long stable orbit so that Gateway and future spacecraft don't have to carry so much fuel to stay in orbit around the Moon Capstone is helping lead the way for Gateway and helps reduce risk for future spacecraft in this orbit another really cool thing about Capstone is that it is also demonstrating a really Innovative navigation system that will allow future spacecraft to determine their location without having to rely exclusively on tracking from Earth so does anything orbit the Moon in summary yes there are several spacecraft orbiting the moon and there will be plenty more to come including Capstone as part of NASA's Artemis program foreign

Channel: NASA

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Id: 0ayDBidFbDI

Length: 1min 52sec (112 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 09 2022