Exploration through Navigation
Charting a Course to the Moon
Final Design by:
5th grade from Orleans Elementary
Teacher: Ms. Currier

Navigation Plan: Earth to Moon How will you stay on course? Team name: 5THY – Fifth Grade Youths (bycd) Spacecraft name: NKOM-NASA Kids On the Moon (BKCOM) Launch time and date: 8:00 A.M. May 3, 2009 Duration of journey: 5 days Expected impact date: 5/8/09

Description of route and orbital paths:

We are using the Hohmann transfer orbit. We will orbit the Earth once. Fire rockets to increase speed and orbit in an elliptical path to reach the orbit of the moon. Fire rockets again. We figured out to land on a full moon. We changed our landing site to the north lunar pole. Our destination is the Shoemaker Crater because it is flat, smooth and has no central peaks. It is also a probable site for locating water ice. Its size is 20 km diameter.

Navigation instruments:

Sextant, Gyro RGA, IMU Star Tracker

Methods of guidance, navigation, control, and tracking:

We are using celestial navigation with the stars Betelgeuse, from the constellation Orion, and Polaris, from the constellation the Big Dipper. We are also using the constellation Cassiopeia and the planet, Jupiter. We will use a sextant to determine our position. We are also using IMU star tracker system. During ascent we will use solid rocket booster RGA's because they are more stable.