Questions tagged [cislunar]

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How big does a LEO relay satellite optical communication package need to be to support cislunar operations?

One of the things to come out of Artemis 1 was that NASA’s Deep Space Network was very overworked supporting Orion and eight cubesats + normal operations and maintenance. This led to some slightly ...
Barry Jenakuns's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
84 views

Antenna wrap material suitable for lunar & cis-lunar environment

I am looking for a wrap (station) antenna for a transceiver (in space/lunar) Not all materials are suitable for the space environment. Does anyone know what wrap antenna materials I can use? I have ...
Anna Koroleva's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
129 views

Is it true that 18SPCS is "not really concerned with tracking deep-space debris like" the Chang’e 5-T1 rocket body that hit the Moon?

The Verge's After mistaken identity and confusion, a piece of space junk slams into the Moon goes through the identification saga of the thing that hit the Moon March 4 and includes the following: ...
uhoh's user avatar
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10 votes
2 answers
417 views

Could Apollo's Sextant navigation use similar geometry as Marine Navigation?

Could Apollo's Sextant navigation for Cislunar Celestial Navigation use similar geometry as Marine Navigation? My grandfather would be familiar with the instrument in this astronaut’s hands, although ...
Woody's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
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Was Chandrayaan-1 recovered (tracked) only that one time in 2016, or is someone still keeping an eye on it from time to time?

Has there ever been probability of conjunction between spacecrafts in Lunar orbit? describes a recent maneuver of two spacecraft in orbit around the moon to avoid a potential collision: Apparently ...
uhoh's user avatar
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1 vote
0 answers
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How to estimate fuel needed to reach LEO, GEO, and L1 earth-moon? [closed]

I'm doing some calculations about fuel production on the moon. To get a sense of order of magnitudes involved. I'd like to know how much fuel is required to get 1kg of mass to LEO, GEO, and L1 Earth-...
dlight's user avatar
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11 votes
2 answers
480 views

What ever happened to 6Q0B44E - potentially the "artificial satellite (with) the farthest orbit around the Earth"?

I just started flipping through Handbook of Space Engineering Archaeology, and Heritage Space Hardware Ann Darrin & Beth L. O'Leary, Eds. 2009, CRC Press, Boca Raton, 1035 pages It looks as though ...
uhoh's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
355 views

Seeing stars from cislunar space?

Did any of the Apollo astronauts describe seeing the stars as they travelled between the Earth and the Moon? If so, what was the magnitude of the dimmest stars they could see? Were they able to see ...
Bob516's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
213 views

How to estimate that receiving GNSS signals Earth while orbiting the Moon will still provide locations to about 200 meters of uncertainty?

IEEE Spectrum's Can Astronauts Use GPS to Navigate on the Moon? NASA Scientists Say Yes says: Kar-Ming Cheung and Charles Lee of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California did the math, and ...
uhoh's user avatar
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8 votes
1 answer
546 views

How does a butterfly orbit move in 3D? Way to generate or visualize?

The paper Earth-Moon Near Rectilinear Halo and Butterfly Orbits for Lunar Surface Exploration (AAS 18-406) says Periodic Orbits in the Earth-Moon System The current investigation focuses on three ...
uhoh's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
296 views

How many spacecraft deployed from the ISS have escaped Earth orbit? Are there plans for any in the near future?

After reading Why did the Ulysses probe reach Jupiter much faster than Galileo? and answers to How many Space Shuttle payloads ended up beyond Earth orbit? and also What's the largest rocket that was ...
uhoh's user avatar
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6 votes
1 answer
637 views

How many Space Shuttle payloads ended up beyond Earth orbit?

Before I'd read Why did the Ulysses probe reach Jupiter much faster than Galileo? and this answer to What's the largest rocket that was carried to space inside a Space Shuttle? I never really ...
uhoh's user avatar
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10 votes
1 answer
1k views

What is Buzz Aldrin's T.O.R. plan? How does it work?

Buzz Aldrin is recently quoted in Ars Technical's Buzz Aldrin is looking forward, not back—and he has a plan to bring NASA along: “This T.O.R. plan may be the most important thing I’ve ever done in ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 149k
0 votes
1 answer
307 views

How to find Horizons ephemerides or Spice kernels for the cis-lunar halo orbits of the Themis B & C) spacecraft?

The Themis spacecraft B and C have been renamed ARTEMIS P1 and P2 and moved around in cis-lunar space from Earth orbit to Lunar orbit. This transfer involved libration point orbits, as discussed in ...
uhoh's user avatar
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3 votes
0 answers
213 views

Patched conic approximation targeting retrograde LLO yields prograde orbit

I'm playing around with optimization of a patched conic approximation for a transit from earth orbit to LLO, and when I take the resulting retrograde trajectory and plug it into an integrator, I get a ...
Translunar's user avatar
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8 votes
1 answer
361 views

Was this the first-ever photo of a full moon very close to lunar new year?

Limiting the concept of "lunar new year" to "Chinese New Year" (since there are many lunar and lunisolar calendars, the latter of which the traditional Chinese one is a widely used example), is this ...
Katie Bechtold's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
367 views

Cis-L2 Libration Point Halo Orbit

Queqiao became the first satellite to orbit the Cis-L2 libration point (far side of the moon). Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chang%27e_4 Does anyone have any insight on how to model this orbit ...
Ari Stern's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
86 views

Direct transfers to inclined lunar orbits?

I'm trying to find examples of direct earth–moon trajectories ending in inclined low lunar orbits. I've found a few classes, such as those with plane changes between SOI encounter and capture ...
Translunar's user avatar
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How fast are trips to the Moon for unmanned spacecraft typically?

The period of an orbit around the Earth is given by: $$T = 2 \pi \sqrt{a^3/GM}$$ For Earth GM is about 3.986E+14 m^3/s^2. Put in $a$ = ((6378+400)*1000) for the ISS in LEO (as a test) and you get ...
uhoh's user avatar
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10 votes
1 answer
548 views

How precise are spacecraft trajectory measurements?

Interplanetary mission trajectories are frequently likened in popular media to hitting a small target with a dart from vast distances, but in reality, spacecraft don't need absurdly high precision, ...
Russell Borogove's user avatar
15 votes
1 answer
18k views

What is a near rectilinear halo orbit?

A proposed option for the lunar orbit of a Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway (formerly known as Deep Space Gateway) is a near rectilinear halo orbit, or NRHO. This excellent answer discusses the ...
uhoh's user avatar
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13 votes
1 answer
7k views

Why is a near rectilinear halo orbit proposed for LOP-G (formerly known as Deep Space Gateway?)

Why is a near rectilinear halo orbit a good place for a Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway (formerly known as Deep Space Gateway)? Are there specific logistical and orbital-mechanical advantages over ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 149k
5 votes
2 answers
888 views

What are the advantages and disadvantages of assembling a space station in LEO before sending it to its intended Lunar orbit?

Government space agencies and some of the largest space companies are talking about building a space station somewhere in cis-Lunar space, the so called "Gateway". As far as I've heard, the (still ...
LocalFluff's user avatar
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1 vote
2 answers
468 views

How does fuel requirement change with mass when traveling from cislunar orbit to Mars?

To be more specific: Suppose a space station is orbiting in a cislunar orbit (about 1000 miles away from the Moon). Now you keep adding more mass (huge cargo) to the cislunar space station. The space ...
DRSD's user avatar
  • 33
3 votes
1 answer
3k views

How much fuel is being consumed by all spacecrafts in orbit?

It is possible to supply spacecrafts in orbit in cis-Lunar space with oxygen from fuel production facilities on the Moon or on asteroids. What is the size of this potential in-space oxygen market ...
LocalFluff's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
443 views

Are Sun-Earth Lagrange points SEL1 and SEL2 useful for communication and space surveillance?

SEL1 and SEL2 are about 0.01 AU away, 10 seconds light travel time back and forth, 4 times Lunar distance, 45 times the distance to GEO. From those two regions combined, all surface on Earth and the ...
LocalFluff's user avatar
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10 votes
3 answers
955 views

How could transfers between SEL1&2 and EML Lagrange points be utilized?

The Earth has 7 Lagrange points nearby since SEL1 and SEL2 (Sun-Earth Lagrange points 1 and 2, respectively) are only between 3 and 5 LD (lunar distances) away from the five EML (Earth-Moon Lagrange) ...
LocalFluff's user avatar
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