With SpaceX making efforts for better and easier human spaceflight, more and more privately-funded space companies are dreaming bigger. Yesterday, Rocket Lab declared its first mission to the moon in collaboration with NASA. If everything goes well, the launch will take place in 2021.
Rocket Lab is a company most famous for launching small satellites that orbit the Earth. The company believes that the invention of the satellite has changed the perspective of humankind. Today, communication has become much easier, safer, and reliable with the help of these satellites. From weather forecasts to military purposes, satellites have a wide range of applications.
Big Plans
Peter Beck founded Rocket Lab in 2006 and 2009 it became the first private company in the southern hemisphere to reach space. The company has always been passionate about exploring deeper into space. They keep pushing themselves to the edge and every time hits a bigger goal.
Rocket Lab’s next big plan is to land on a unique lunar orbit in collaboration with NASA. This mission of Rocket Lab in 2021 will become a historic event in space history as it aims to land the first woman on the moon by 2024. By now, the company has launched 53 spacecraft in total which mainly targets the lower Earth orbit.
But, the Mission To The Moon will be something exceptional for the company. In this mission, Rocket Lab will use its Electron rocket and Photon Lunar Spacecraft to launch the CAPSTONE CubeSat of NASA. CAPSTONE stands for Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment.
Aim of the Mission
The company has been eyeing to land on one of the unique lunar orbits for years. The contract with NASA and the spacecraft CAPSTONE will surely reach new heights. The primary goal of the mission is to examine and verify the stability of a near rectilinear halo orbit around the moon. This is the same orbit that is planned for the Lunar Gateway.
Apart from this, the CAPSTONE concerns about testing a navigation system which will measure its relative position to NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. This navigation system will not rely on the ground stations.
More about the CAPSTONE mission
The combination of the Photon spacecraft and the Electron rocket acts as a satellite that is used to transfer various payloads into space. Rocket Lab’s Photon spacecraft has been used for a few years now. Though the company was using it as a customized satellite for orbiting the lower Earth orbits, it is time to test it for advanced missions.
The Photon spacecraft has undergone some major modifications for the CAPSTONE mission. The size of the propellant tanks has been increased to several folds and a new engine called HyperCurie has been installed. This engine will provide more thrust than the existing Curie engine. Apart from these, the installation of solar panels will take place and some changes to the Photon.
The CAPSTONE is planned to launch from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 2, Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport. It is located on Wallops Island, Virginia, USA. The mass of the satellite is 25kg and it will pass 1600km closest to 70000km furthest from the lunar surface. Currently, the team is engaged in building the Electron rocket for the mission. Since the mission is targeting a special lunar orbit; several launches might target the same orbit in the future with better planning.
Beyond the lunar orbit
The Mission To The Moon will be the first step of Rocket Lab for its journey towards deeper space. Once they successfully land of Moon, it will unleash its potential to explore Mars and Venus as well. Rocket Lab mentions that they are waiting to make this mission successful so that they can proceed with other plans to explore the space.
The company also says that these small space probes play a big part in these interplanetary missions. And, they are also looking forward to sending such small spacecraft into deeper space. This is just the first step, and once they proceed to the next mission, many new ideas and strategies will come up. It’s a dream for Rocket Lab to make the journey to space easier.
Annasha Dey is an NIT student, who apart from studying engineering is also a content writer. She has a great interest in photography, writing, reading novels, and travelling as well. She is a foodie who loves socializing and hanging out with her friends. She is also a trained Kathak dancer and a big fashion enthusiast. Dey also loves watching TV series, which includes F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and Big Bang Theory. To be a better writer she prefers to read more