Small Spacecraft Community of Practice
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An Overview and Status of the CAPSTONE Mission
Speaker: Elwood Agasid, NASA Ames Research Center
Wednesday, March 8, 2023
10:00AM-11:00AM Pacific Standard Time
Click here to watch the webinar.
Click here to download the presentation.
Abstract: NASA is partnered with Advanced Space to develop and build the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) mission which serves as a pathfinder for Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NHRO) operations around the Moon. The NHRO, (Perilune = 3,200 km; Apolune = 70,000 km) is the intended orbit for the NASA’s Gateway lunar orbital platform, as such the CAPSTONE mission will validate simulations and confirm operational planning for Gateway while also validating performance of navigation and station-keeping for the power and propulsion element. Thus, this mission will provide operational experience to NASA, commercial, and international missions for operations in a demanding orbital regime. This presentation will provide information on the CAPSTONE spacecraft systems, launch, mission operations, as well as offer lessons learned and current mission status.
Bio: Mr. Elwood Agasid is the deputy program manager for NASA’s Small Spacecraft Technology (SST) program within the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate. The program seeks to expand the ability to execute unique missions through rapid development and demonstration of capabilities for small spacecraft applicable to exploration, science, and the commercial space sector. Elwood has held a number of positions in his 30-plus years at NASA Ames Research Center in areas involving the development of space missions and technologies. Having served as the deputy project manager for the GeneSat-1 mission, NASA’s first nanosatellite demonstration mission that launched in 2006, Elwood and his team successfully validated a fully automated biological spaceflight experiment on an 11-pound small satellite. This demonstration mission led to the development of other small satellite missions managed by Elwood and teams of engineers and scientists at NASA Ames. In his many NASA roles, Elwood has managed contracts involving both industry and academia on projects related to the development and infusion of small spacecraft technologies, systems, and the platform itself into NASA science and exploration missions. Elwood is currently the project manager for NASA’s Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) mission which is the first CubeSat to fly in cislunar space.
S3VI encourages the community to submit questions before the webinar to enable more directed responses. Please send questions to craig.d.burkhard@nasa.gov.
