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[Music]

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NASA's lunar reconnaissance Orbiter and

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a handful of other active spacecraft are

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currently orbiting the moon one of the

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really cool cubesats I'm excited about

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is NASA Capstone which will be joining

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these other spacecraft in orbit around

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the Moon Capstone stands for the Sith

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lunar autonomous Positioning Systems

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Technology operations and navigation

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experiment it serves as a Pathfinder

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mission for Gateway as part of NASA's

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Artemis program Gateway is a space

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station that will orbit the Moon and

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provide a place for astronauts to

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resupply and prepare for their trips

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down to the lunar surface did you know

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that orbits around the moon are very

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unstable the moon's gravity is

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extraordinarily lumpy so it's really

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hard to stay in orbit around the Moon if

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the satellite orbits too close to the

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lunar surface the moon's gravity might

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cause the satellite to actually crash

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into the moon on the other hand if the

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satellite is slightly too far away from

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the Moon the Earth's gravity will pull

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the spacecraft out flaking it away from

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the Moon altogether what's really cool

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about Capstone is that it's the first

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spacecraft to test the entrance and

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sustainability of a very unique near

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Richter linear Halo orbit also known as

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nrho this nrho orbit is at a precise

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balance point between the gravities of

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the Earth and the moon which offers a

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long stable orbit so that Gateway and

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future spacecraft don't have to carry so

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much fuel to stay in orbit around the

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Moon Capstone is helping lead the way

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for Gateway and helps reduce risk for

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future spacecraft in this orbit another

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really cool thing about Capstone is that

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it is also demonstrating a really

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Innovative navigation system that will

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allow future spacecraft to determine

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their location without having to rely

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exclusively on tracking from Earth so

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does anything orbit the Moon in summary

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yes there are several spacecraft

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orbiting the moon and there will be

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plenty more to come including Capstone