ARTEMIS at Lagrange

  • Released Wednesday, October 27, 2010
View full credits

This visualization is built from the components of ARTEMIS Mission with emphasis on the maneuvers of the two ARTEMIS spacecraft (red=ARTEMIS-1, green=ARTEMIS-2) around the lunar Lagrange Points L1 and L2.

As with the ARTEMIS Mission visual, we show the Earth, the Earth's magnetosphere, the Moon and Sun, with the direction of the Sun from the Earth indicated by the yellow arrow.

In this version, the satellite trails are are constructed in a lunar-centric inertial coordinate system so the trails reveal the motion of the satellites relative to the Lagrange points in INERTIAL space (fixed with the distant stars). To see another example of how coordinate systems dramatically affect the construction of trails, see LRO in Earth Centered and Moon Centered Coordinates.

In this movie, the camera starts above the Moon's orbital plane and then slowly moves towards the Moon's orbital plane to get a better sense of the motion in 3-D space. For a different perspective, see ARTEMIS at Lagrange: The View from Above.

The full movie from Lagrange point capture to lunar orbit capture.

Early in the maneuvers, ARTEMIS-1 orbits L2 and ARTEMIS-2 orbits L1.

Early in the maneuvers, ARTEMIS-1 orbits L2 and ARTEMIS-2 orbits L1.

A more oblique view of ARTEMIS-1 orbiting L2 and ARTEMIS-2 orbiting L1. The Earth's magnetosphere is to the left.

A more oblique view of ARTEMIS-1 orbiting L2 and ARTEMIS-2 orbiting L1. The Earth's magnetosphere is to the left.

ARTEMIS-1 transitions from L1 to L2, with the Sun in the distance.

ARTEMIS-1 transitions from L1 to L2, with the Sun in the distance.

As the camera moves close to the Moon's orbital plane, we see that the two spacecraft are executing their motions in all three spatial dimensions, This is because the coordinate system of the trails has a fixed orientation with the distant stars (inertial space).

As the camera moves close to the Moon's orbital plane, we see that the two spacecraft are executing their motions in all three spatial dimensions, This is because the coordinate system of the trails has a fixed orientation with the distant stars (inertial space).

ARTEMIS-1 is captured into lunar orbit...

ARTEMIS-1 is captured into lunar orbit...

...and now ARTEMIS-2 is captured into lunar orbit.

...and now ARTEMIS-2 is captured into lunar orbit.

ARTEMIS 1 & 2 orbit the Moon.

ARTEMIS 1 & 2 orbit the Moon.

ARTEMIS 1 & 2 orbit the Moon.

ARTEMIS 1 & 2 orbit the Moon.

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

This page was originally published on Wednesday, October 27, 2010.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:53 PM EDT.

Missions

This page is related to the following missions:

Datasets used

Note: While we identify the data sets used on this page, we do not store any further details, nor the data sets themselves on our site.