moon Archives - Defence Monitor

13 Apr

Private Japanese lander to make historic touchdown on Moon

Tokyo, April 13, Japanese lunar exploration company ispace aims to make a historic touchdown on the surface of the Moon on April 25, the company said on Thursday. So far no privately operated spacecraft has ever landed softly on the Moon, besides those operated by NASA, Russia and China. "The earliest scheduled landing date for the HAKUTO-R Mission 1 Lunar Lander is set for April 25 at 16:40 UTC (10.10 p.m. IST)," the company said in a statement. However, it noted that the date and time "are subject to change depending on operational conditions". "What we have accomplished so far is…

19 Sep

Search for Vikram on: NASA scientists analyse lunar images from orbiter

New York: Scientists are analysing the images taken under harsh light conditions by the NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) Camera of the area where the Vikram moon lander is likely to have touched down on the moon and it may be a while before they can locate it, project experts told IANS. LRO project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Noah Petro, said on Wednesday that they were now analysing the images taken on Tuesday "and we will make a statement at some point when we can identify the lander." But he added, "It is important to remember that the…

01 Jun

3 US firms chosen to help NASA land US astronauts on Moon

Washington: The US space agency has awarded a total of $254 million to three companies to land their machines on the lunar surface, paving the way for NASA astronauts to land on the Moon by 2024.The three companies are: Astrobotic of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Intuitive Machines of Houston, Texas; and Orbit Beyond of Edison, New Jersey, the agency said in a statement late Friday. Astrobotic and Intuitive Machines plan to land their machines by July 2021 and Orbit Beyond aims for September 2020.Each commercial lander will carry NASA-provided payloads that will conduct science investigations and demonstrate advanced technologies on the lunar surface.…

28 Feb

Scientists explore Sun’s damaging radiation on Moon

Washington: With NASA planning to put astronauts back on the Moon, scientists have explored how Sun's damaging radiation left scars on the lunar surface.A team from the University of California-Berkeley studied data from NASA's ARTEMIS mission along with simulations of the Moon's magnetic environment.ARTEMIS is short for Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence and Electrodynamics of the Moon's Interaction with the Sun. The data suggests that the solar wind and the Moon's crustal magnetic fields work together to give the Moon a distinctive pattern of darker and lighter swirls.The Sun releases a continuous outflow of particles and radiation called the solar wind, which spreads…