Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) of Hawthorne, California has won NASA'S first contract for Gateway Logistics Services, the delivery of cargo, experiments and other supplies to the small space station, Gateway, that will serve as the hub of deep space exploration in its lunar orbit.Under the deal,SpaceX will deliver critical pressurised and unpressurised cargo, science experiments and supplies,to include sample collection materials and other items needed for Artemis expeditions on the lunar surface.*
The cargo spacecraft will stay docked with Gateway for 6-12 months at a time, NASA said,in support of the Artemis Missions beginning with Artemis III in 2024, the return to the Moon.NASA explained that:
These missions will support NASA'S plans for sustainable exploration with both international and commercial partners, while developing the experience and capabilities necessary to send humans to Mars.*
Dan Hartman, Gateway program manager at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, noted that:
We also anticipate performing a variety of research within the logistics module.*
Artemis I will be an uncrewed test flight in 2021 of the integrated Orion spacecraft, European Service Module and Space Launch System rocket.Artemis II in late 2022 will basically replicate Artemis I's lunar flyby, but with a crew.*
After Artemis II, launches are planned to transport and insert into lunar orbit the Gateway power and propulsion modules-plus the Gateway habitat and docking node for a commercial lunar lander to attach to.*
In the Artemis III Mission,four astronauts will arrive at Gateway in 2024, and two of them will ride the lander to the lunar surface, where they will explore the lunar south polar region for about a week, gathering samples of water ice in a prepositioned unpressurised rover over a distance of 5-15 kilometers.*
Over a period of about 12 years, one Artemis lunar mission a year will prepare the way to Mars in the mid-2030s.*
Monday, March 30, 2020
Sunday, March 29, 2020
The Untouched Apollo Samples
The Untouched Apollo Samples: Charis Krysher and Andrea Mosie, lunar curation processor and senior scientist specialist, respectively, discuss opening and processing Apollo 17 lunar samples that have been preserved for 47 years. HWHAP Episode 137.
Saturday, March 28, 2020
Friday, March 27, 2020
Thursday, March 26, 2020
Sunday, March 22, 2020
NEW DETAILS on Peter Jackson’s 2020 Beatles Film: Title, Release Date, a...
The Walt Disney Company (DIS)
Monday, March 16, 2020
Friday, March 13, 2020
Thursday, March 12, 2020
Monday, March 9, 2020
Saturday, March 7, 2020
Friday, March 6, 2020
Thursday, March 5, 2020
Tuesday, March 3, 2020
Monday, March 2, 2020
Scouting an Orbit for Gateway:Rocket Lab Chosen to Launch NASA's CAPSTONE Mission
The launch services contract for the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) has been awarded to Rocket Lab USA Inc.Under the 9.95 million deal,the company will launch CAPSTONE on its Electron rocket from the NASA Wallops Flight Facility,Virginia.RL's Photon platform will then insert the CAPSTONE CubeSat into a trans-lunar injection,enabling it to venture to the Moon and achieve cislunar orbit on its own,a spaceflight that will take three months.
CAPSTONE will verify the characteristics of a near-rectilinear orbit for future missions and conduct a navigation demonstration with NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.According to Marshall Smith,NASA's director of human exploration programs:
CAPSTONE is a rapid,risk-tolerant demonstration that sets out to learn about the unique,seven-day cislunar orbit we are also targeting for Gateway (the small space station that will serve as a platform for missions exploring the Moon and Mars).*
Advanced Space of Boulder,Colorado will develop and operate the CubeSat,and Tyvak Satellite Systems of Irvine,California will assist by building and testing CAPSTONE.*
CAPSTONE is scheduled for an early 2021 launch from the new Rocket Lab launch pad at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) within NASA Wallops.*
CAPSTONE will verify the characteristics of a near-rectilinear orbit for future missions and conduct a navigation demonstration with NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.According to Marshall Smith,NASA's director of human exploration programs:
CAPSTONE is a rapid,risk-tolerant demonstration that sets out to learn about the unique,seven-day cislunar orbit we are also targeting for Gateway (the small space station that will serve as a platform for missions exploring the Moon and Mars).*
Advanced Space of Boulder,Colorado will develop and operate the CubeSat,and Tyvak Satellite Systems of Irvine,California will assist by building and testing CAPSTONE.*
CAPSTONE is scheduled for an early 2021 launch from the new Rocket Lab launch pad at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) within NASA Wallops.*
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