Lunar Landings News and Discussions

[wjfox]

[caltrek]

^^^More on that:

U.S. Makes History With Its First Moon Landing In Over 50 Years
by Holly Large
February 23, 2024

Introduction:

(IFL Science) "What we can confirm, without a doubt, is our equipment is on the surface of the Moon and we are transmitting." Those were the words from flight director Tim Crain yesterday, as private company Intuitive Machines confirmed its lander Odysseus successfully touched down on the lunar surface, making history in the process.

It marks the first time since 1972 that the US has landed on the Moon and it’s also the first time ever that a private company has put a spacecraft there. But making history is never simple; Odysseus’ ranging lasers, which help to determine its altitude and velocity, decided it was a great time to take a break and stopped working properly.

Experimental lasers from NASA ended up saving the day, and Odysseus landed at 6:23 pm EST (11:23 pm UTC) near Malapert A, a crater close to the Moon’s south pole. However, it wasn’t over yet – the robot wasn’t sending out any signals. That quiet spell soon broke, however, and a few hours later, communications were well up and running with data and pictures aplenty.

"The US has returned to the Moon," said NASA administrator Bill Nelson in an agency broadcast of the landing. "Today, for the first time in the history of humanity, a commercial company – an American company – launched and led the voyage up there. And today is the day that shows the power and promise of Nasa's commercial partnerships."

Odysseus, playfully nicknamed “Odie”, is carrying a number of NASA payloads amongst some from other private companies and research institutions. It’s hoped that it will provide vital information about the lunar south pole, because of the presence of water ice – which could come in pretty handy if we ever decide to live on the Moon.

Read more here: https://www.iflscience.com/us-makes-hi ... rs-73085

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[wjfox]

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The Sideways Odysseus Lunar Lander Will Shut Down Today
Intuitive Machines confirms the tipped-over vehicle will run out of power in a few hours.
By Ryan Whitwam February 27, 2024

https://www.extremetech.com/science/the ... down-today
Intuitive Machines had a big win last week when it became the first private company to conduct a soft landing on the Moon. The win could have been bigger, though. While the Odysseus lander did reach the surface intact, it tipped over and is currently lying on its side. The company has an update on the lander's status—this historic mission is coming to an end. Odysseus has beamed science data back home, but it will probably run out of power in mere hours.

Odysseus (AKA the IM-1 mission) defied the odds by reaching the lunar surface. The vehicle's navigation lasers were never switched on before launch, something Intuitive Machines did not realize until Odysseus was already orbiting the Moon. Luckily, one of its NASA science payloads was a prototype laser navigation system. The team switched over to the NASA system, and it guided the vehicle down within a mile or so of its target. That's solid accuracy for any landing on a celestial body.

[firestar464]

Confused. So it was just a short-term project?

And couldn't it come back alive like SLIM did?

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[firestar464]

so uhhh, not dead after all?

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[firestar464]

At least they believe there's hope...so was this a short-term project or not? If no, then why didn't they make the lander more resilient or reliable?

[wjfox]

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[caltrek]

Northrup Grumman is Studying How to Build a Railway on the Moon
by Matt Williams
March 23, 2024

Introduction:

(The Universe Today) Roughly two years and six months from now, as part of NASA’s Artemis III mission, astronauts will set foot on the lunar surface for the first time in over fifty years. Beyond this mission, NASA will deploy the elements of the Lunar Gateway, the Artemis Base Camp, and other infrastructure that will allow for a “sustained program of lunar exploration and development.” They will be joined by the European Space Agency (ESA), the China National Space Agency (CNSA), and Roscosmos, the latter two collaborating to build the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS).

Anticipating this process of lunar development (and looking to facilitate it), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) launched the 10-year Lunar Architecture (LunA-10) Capability Study in August last year. In recent news, the agency announced that it selected Northrop Grumman to develop a moon-based railroad network. This envisioned network could transport humans, supplies, and resources for space agencies and commercial ventures, facilitating exploration, scientific research, and the creation of a lunar economy.

According to DARPA, the seven-month LunA-10 study aims to establish “an analytical framework that defines new opportunities for rapid scientific and commercial activity on and around the Moon.” It also aims to foster the development of foundational technology to optimize lunar infrastructure, allowing space agencies to move away from individual efforts within isolated, self-sufficient systems and towards shareable, scalable, resource-driven systems that can operate together. In keeping with NASA’s long-term objectives, this work will complement the administration’s “Moon to Mars” objectives.

In layman’s terms, the plan is to develop the technologies that will allow space agencies and companies to access each others’ resources, facilities, and information to promote further growth opportunities. Several key sectors are identified in the solicitation that must be developed into services to sustain a long-term presence on the Moon based on an independent market analysis of the future lunar economy. They include construction, mining, transit, energy, agriculture, and research (e.g., medicine, robotics, and life sustainment) that will have applications for space exploration and life on Earth.

Read more here: https://www.universetoday.com/166238/n ... re-166238



Artist rendition of construction of the Moon.
Credit: NASA

[Time_Traveller]

Artemis astronauts will carry plants to the moon in 2026

4 hours ago

The first astronauts to land on the moon in more than half a century will set up a lunar mini-greenhouse, if all goes according to plan.

NASA has selected the first three science experiments to be deployed by astronauts on the moon's surface on the Artemis 3 mission in 2026. Among them is LEAF ("Lunar Effects on Agricultural Flora"), which will study how space crops fare in the exotic lunar environment.

"LEAF will be the first experiment to observe plant photosynthesis, growth and systemic stress responses in space-radiation and partial gravity," NASA officials wrote in a statement Tuesday (March 26) announcing the selection of the three experiments.

"Plant growth and development data, along with environmental parameters measured by LEAF, will help scientists understand the use of plants grown on the moon for both human nutrition and life support on the moon and beyond," they added.

The LEAF subjects won't be the first-ever flora on the moon; China sent cotton plants to the lunar far side on its robotic Chang'e 4 mission in January 2019.

https://www.space.com/nasa-artemis-3-pl ... iment-moon

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Japan moon probe survives second lunar night
https://phys.org/news/2024-03-japan-moo ... lunar.html
by Katie Forster, Hiroshi HIYAMA

The SLIM lander touched down in January at a wonky angle that left its solar panels facing the wrong way.

Japan's moon lander woke up after unexpectedly surviving a second frigid, two-week lunar night and transmitted new images back to Earth, the country's space agency said Thursday.

The unmanned Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) probe touched down in January, making Japan only the fifth nation to reach the lunar surface without crashing.

But the lightweight spacecraft landed at a wonky angle that left its solar panels facing the wrong way.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency announced the probe's latest surprise awakening in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

"We received a response from SLIM last night and confirmed that SLIM had successfully completed its second overnight," it said.

A black-and-white photo of the rocky surface of a crater accompanied the post on SLIM's official account.

"Since the sun was still high in the sky... and the equipment was still hot, we recorded images of the usual scenery with the navigational camera, among other activities, for a short period of time," it said.

Thursday's news came after an uncrewed American lander called Odysseus—the first private spaceship to successfully land on the moon—had failed to wake up.

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NASA Successfully Tests Autonomous Moon Rovers
The CADRE rovers are destined for a future CLPS commercial payload mission.
By Ryan Whitwam April 2, 2024
https://www.extremetech.com/science/nas ... oon-rovers

After decades of ignoring the lunar surface, NASA and other space agencies are again trying to land on Earth's natural satellite. NASA's Artemis program aims to return humans to the Moon in the next few years, but it's not going to be a quick visit like Apollo. The agency hopes to lay the foundations for a long-term human presence this time, and that means we need to collect data on lunar conditions with modern technology. As part of that initiative, NASA is designing a swarm of semi-autonomous lunar rovers called CADRE (Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration). After building the first engineering prototypes last year, the agency has full-scale development models online and running tests at JPL's Mars Yard.

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[firestar464]

I fear the moon is gonna get taken over by corps