The moon lander dubbed Odysseus is “alive and well” but resting on its side a day after its white-knuckle touchdown as the first private spacecraft ever to reach the lunar surface, and the first from the U.S. since 1972, the company behind the vehicle said on Friday.
Recorded earlier
A robotic spacecraft is expected to touch down on the moon’s surface Thursday night, in what will mark the United States’s first uncrewed commercial moon landing.
On Thursday, flight controllers in Houston will lower the spacecraft’s orbit and attempt a landing near the moon’s south pole.
A private U.S. lunar lander is in orbit around the moon, a day before it will attempt to land on the surface.
Space Perspective, a US-based company, is set to revolutionize the way humans experience space.
The capsule has large vertical windows for panoramic views and innovative window technology that shields against harmful sunlight wavelengths and regulates the interior temperature.
This spacious capsule is designed to comfortably host eight Explorers (the travelers) along with a Captain.
The capsule has a spacious interior and several amenities, including the world’s first Space Lounge with WiFi and a restroom.
Firefly Aerospace sent a Lockheed Martin payload to the wrong orbit in December, and it is now ‘implementing corrections’ for future missions.
Twelve years later, NASA’s Juno spacecraft has zipped past Jupiter’s poles, watched its Great Red Spot churn, and visited its largest moon, Ganymede.
NASA ’s lunar mission with Intuitive Machines showcases successful launch, innovative engine testing, and advanced navigation technology for precise lunar exploration.
After a successful launch on February 15, six NASA science instruments and technology demonstrations continue their journey to the Moon aboard Intuitive Machines’ lander named Odysseus. The company confirmed communications contact with its mission operations control in Houston, and its lander continues to perform as expected.
Known as IM-1, Intuitive Machines successfully transmitted its first images back to Earth on February 16. These were captured shortly after separation from SpaceX ’s second stage, on Intuitive Machines’ first journey to the Moon as part of the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative and Artemis campaign.
The lunar sample returned by China’s 2020 lunar mission contained minerals that provide clues to their origin. China’s Chang’e-5, the first lunar sample return mission since the Soviet Union’s Luna 24 in 1976, delivered 1.73 kilograms of regolith from the Oceanus Procellarum, a plane named for its vast size. The sample landed with CE-5 in late 2020 and included a new mineral, Changesite-(Y), as well as a perplexing combination of silica minerals. Researchers now compare CE-5’s material composition to other lunar and Martian regolith samples and examine potential causes and origins for the lunar sample’s unique makeup.
Earth’s moon achieved its Swiss cheese appearance from celestial objects crashing into its surface, forming impact craters. But craters weren’t all that was left behind; the intense pressure and temperature of such a collision also impacts the rocks and dust covering the lunar surface, known as regolith, altering its mineral composition and structure. Analyzing the resulting minerals provides modern researchers clues to the moon’s past.
China’s Chang’e-5, the first lunar sample return mission since the Soviet Union’s Luna 24 in 1976, delivered 1.73 kilograms of regolith from the Oceanus Procellarum, a plane named for its vast size.
Ever wonder what it’s like to live on Mars? Now, you could try out life on the Red Planet – in a simulation run by NASA. The space agency is looking for participants to live on a fake Mars for a full year to help them prepare for human exploration of the planet.
This is the second of three missions, which will have four volunteers living in a 1,700-square-foot Mars simulation, NASA has announced. The missions, called CHAPEA, for Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog, take place in a 3D-printed Mars habitat at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
The simulation, called the Mars Dune Alpha, simulates a future Mars habitat with separate areas for living and working. It includes four living quarters for each volunteer, a workspace, a medical station, lounge areas and a galley and food growing stations.
