From Sky & Telescope: A future CubeSat pathfinder is set to explore a unique orbital path that will be used later by humans exploring the Moon.
Last week, NASA awarded a $13.7 million contract to Advanced Space, based in Boulder, Colorado, to develop the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (Capstone). The mission consists of a 12U CubeSat the size of a microwave oven, and it could launch in late 2020.
NASA plans to return to the Moon with its Artemis program, sister to the Apollo program of the 1960s and 1970s. As part of this program, NASA is building a Lunar Gateway outpost, which will be Ìýplaced in a near-rectilinear halo orbit around the Moon.From this unique vantagepoint, the Lunar Gateway will eventually be dispatching crewed missions on expeditions to the lunar polar regions. Capstone will test the viability of this unique orbit.