After a short visit to the Moon’s far side, a Chinese spacecraft loaded with lunar rock and dust has started its return trip to Earth to deliver these precious samples.
Following a less-than-perfect touchdown, the Odysseus lander has been spotted from lunar orbit while lying on its side on the surface of the Moon. The lunar lander also beamed back its first images from the Moon as it fights to stay alive before it runs out of power.
Japan’s SLIM, the Smart Lander for Investigation Moon, has entered a dormant mode on the Moon’s Shioli Crater, facing a 14-day lunar night with temperatures dropping below -200 degrees Fahrenheit.
Being the space nerd that I am, I often imagine a museum filled with the most important objects ever sent to space. We couldn’t possibly build a place like this, but we can speculate as to which human artifacts deserve a place in our imaginary spaceflight museum.
NASA’s diligent lunar orbiter transmitted a laser beam to a dome-shaped aluminum device the size of a billiard ball on India’s Vikram lander, pinging its location on the Moon. This laser-enabled technique could one day help NASA astronauts find their way on the lunar surface.
Japan chooses to go to the Moon, and it’s doing so with a strong emphasis on accuracy. With SLIM, the nation’s space agency is aiming for an autonomous, high-precision landing within an impressive 328 feet (100 meters) of its intended target inside Shioli Crater.
A mission to land a private U.S. lander on the Moon, and the first U.S. lander since the Apollo era, looks to be ending before it even had a chance to get started.
India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission launched on July 14, headed towards a historic touchdown on the lunar surface. But before the lunar lander took off, it had to wait a few seconds until its path to orbit was clear.
From its new headquarters in the U.S., Tokyo-based startup ispace will develop its Apex 1.0 lunar lander to transport NASA payloads to the Moon in 2026.