Orbiting two bodies at once.
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I am currently working on the Lunar Gateway program. The NRHO is one of the cool things about working on the project.
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It’s interesting how CAPSTONE is getting there. The Photon upper stage boosts the payload into a trajectory that carries it 1.3 milion km from the Earth (around three times the mean Earth-Moon distance) where the payload makes a low-energy maneuver to perform the radical plane change and orbit insertion with low delta-v, then falls back toward the Moon and performs the final orbital insertion there. This takes four months from launch to arrival in its final mission orbit, but makes the mission possible with the Electron/Photon launcher.
I don’t know if Gateway launches will use a similar trajectory or take advantage of higher capacity launchers to get there faster.
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Gateway is using a low-acceleration electromagnetic drive to get to the orbit point. Another cool thing about the project.
I feel like I am working in a 1950s-1960s Heinlein or Poul Anderson SF novel.
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