A deep-space radio built by Utah engineers is being used as part of NASA’s mission to return astronauts to the moon.
Utah State University’s Space Dynamics Laboratory built the radio as part of a mission called the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment, or CAPSTONE for short.
The Space Dynamics Laboratory’s radio will spend the next several months orbiting the moon on this mission to help NASA study what’s known as a near rectilinear halo orbit. This type of orbit provides a near-continuous view of the Earth, which is important for communication, and also doesn’t take a lot of energy to maintain. This is the first spacecraft to fly this orbit.
