CubeSat Set to Demonstrate NASA’s Fastest Laser Link from Space
NASA primarily uses radio frequency to communicate with spacecraft, but with sights set on human exploration of the Moon and Mars and the development of enhanced scientific instruments, NASA needs more efficient communications systems to transmit significant amounts of data. With more data, researchers can make profound discoveries. Laser communications substantially increases data transport capabilities, offering higher data rates and more information packed into a single transmission.
Cubesats to the Moon
On the evening of Monday, June 13, in New Zealand, a Rocket Lab Electron rocket is scheduled to lift off from the company’s Launch Complex 1. That launch will look like many others by the company except for a prominent white NASA “worm” logo on the side of the booster, an indication that the launch is being performed for the space agency.
CAPSTONE | Electron
Rocket Lab will be launching the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The mission is comprised of one spacecraft which, over the course of many months, will travel to the Moon and enter a Near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO).
Media Briefing: CAPSTONE Prelaunch
Check out the CAPSTONE prelaunch media telecon to learn how Terran Orbital, Advanced Space, NASA, and Rocket Lab are working together to make this first of its kind lunar mission happen
CubeSats Take a Bus into Space
This bus doesn’t use wheels to move around, but a CubeSat can’t get anywhere without it. In the world of these small, standardized, inexpensive satellites, a “bus” refers to the hardware foundation that provides it with power, communications, thermal stability, and other “services” a payload needs to function.
CAPSTONE Uses Gravity on Unusual, Efficient Route to the Moon
CAPSTONE is planned to launch no earlier than May 31 aboard Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket from the company’s Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand. The CubeSat will start its mission joined with the Lunar Photon, an interplanetary third stage developed by Rocket Lab.