# An Overview of CubeSat Missions and Applications
## 7 CubeSats as Deep-Space Exploration Platforms
### The Role of CubeSats in Lunar Exploration Missions  
Due to its close proximity to the Earth when compared to other interplanetary destinations and the renewed scientific interest in the exploration of the Earth's natural satellite, the Moon has attracted the interest of a multitude of CubeSat missions over the last few years, with a significant number of new missions under development as of 2025. The first CubeSat mission that visited the Moon was the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) which is presented in Figure 18. CAPSTONE is a 12U CubeSat developed by Advanced Space, LLC. (Westminster, CO, USA), Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems Inc., and NASA.It was launched on 28 June 2022 in a ballistic lunar trajectory and following a three-month journey, it was inserted into a near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO) that brought it 1,600 km off the lunar north pole surface at its closest approach and 70,000 km off the lunar south pole at its furthest point. Once there, CAPSTONE's primary mission objective was to test and verify the calculated orbital stability of the NRHO, as well as demonstrate and validate navigation and orbital maintenance capabilities and strategies. Regarding navigation capabilities, CAPSTONE was also equipped with the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System (CAPS) software (Advanced Space, LLC., Westminster, CO, USA) [247]. CAPS is an advanced space navigation system under development which, when fully operational, would enable spacecraft that are in orbit around the moon to determine their location in the cislunar space through peer-to-peer communication, reducing the reliance on Earth-based navigation infrastructure. If successfully deployed, CAPS will serve as a robust solution for the tracking of the ever-rising number of objects in lunar orbit, a number that is expected to rise exponentially over the next decades. In that regard, CAPSTONE was tasked with demonstrating core technical components of the CAPS by performing inter-spacecraft raging measurements with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) robotic spacecraft which is also operating in orbit around the moon and thus help in accelerating its development. Finally, CAPSTONE was also equipped with commercial imager that would be utilized for capturing images of the Moon and the Earth. Since the beginning of its mission, CAPSTONE has operated successfully in NRHO for more than 267 days and has successfully executed all the planned orbital maintenance maneuvers. Thus, although not a lunar exploration CubeSat with the strict sense of the term, CAPSTONE has served as a precursor for both the launch of the upcoming Lunar Gateway space station which will be orbiting the moon in the same type of NRHO and will play an important role in the Artemis program and human lunar exploration, as well as paving the way for the success of a variety of other lunar exploration missions that will follow [248; 249; 250; 251]. During the launch of the Artemis I mission on 16 November 2022, a total of ten 6U CubeSats were launched as secondary payload inside the unused volume of the Orion stage adapter that connects the Orion spacecraft with the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) of NASA's Block 1A Space Launch System (SLS). These CubeSats were deployed after the separation of the Orion spacecraft from the ICPS and were sent on a Moon fly-by trajectory. Some of the CubeSats would continue on this fly-by trajectory, while others would utilize their integrated propulsion systems to insert themselves into orbits around the Moon. Of these ten CubeSats present onboard Artemis I, four were intended for the performance of lunar exploration missions and one for the demonstration of technologies relevant to future lunar exploration missions [253].