Near-rectilinear halo orbit

A near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO) is a type of halo orbit that is currently planned in cislunar space, but as of mid-2020, has not been used on any spacecraft. One planned instance of a NRHO is a Moon-centric orbit that will serve as a staging area for future lunar missions. However, an NRHO need not be involved with the Earth-Moon system, and the orbit could be used in a variety of other contexts around other bodies in the Solar System and beyond.

NHRO orbits are one theoretical solution to the classic three-body problem in gravitational mechanics.

Planned NRHO usage

By 2018, NASA was considering use of a near-rectilinear halo orbit for a future lunar missions.[1][2]

As of 2020, an NRHO is planned for the NASA Lunar Gateway in circa 2024. The Gateway orbit is planned to be a highly-elliptical seven-day near-rectilinear halo orbit around the Moon, which would bring the small space station within 3,000 kilometers (1,900 mi) of the lunar north pole at closest approach and as far away as 70,000 kilometers (43,000 mi) over the lunar south pole.[3][4][5]

The company Advanced Space is building a 12-unit cubesat to fly on a Gateway precursor mission. Named CAPSTONE (Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment), the spacecraft is expected to be the first spacecraft to operate in a NRHO lunar orbit. The mission objective is to test and verify the calculated orbital stability planned later for the Lunar Gateway space station, and the spacecraft will fly the same orbital parameters as planned for Gateway. It will also test a navigation system that will measure spacecraft position relative to NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), without relying on ground stations.[5]

References
  1. NASA Shapes Science Plan for Deep-Space Outpost Near the Moon, space.com, March 2018.
  2. How a New Orbital Moon Station Could Take Us to Mars and Beyond, space.com, October 2017, video with refs
  3. Angelic halo orbit chosen for humankind's first lunar outpost, European Space Agency, published by PhysOrg, 19 July 2019, accessed 15 June 2020.
  4. Halo orbit selected for Gateway space station. David Szondy, New Atlas. 18 July 2019.
  5. Foust, Jeff (16 September 2019). "NASA cubesat to test lunar Gateway orbit". SpaceNews. Retrieved 15 June 2020.


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