Some space science items of interest: ** Planetary rover update: January 22, 2019 | Behind The Black – Bob Zimmerman reports on the status and plans for the Mars rovers and the Chinese Yutu-2 rover on the Moon. Since November […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Archive for The Moon
165 results.
[ Update Jan.16.2019: There has been some confusion about the photos of the cotton plant shoots. A couple of early images circulating in the Chinese press were actually from a ground unit. However, the one shown below is apparently from […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Controllers of the Chinese space Chang’e-4 lander and Yutu-2 rover have reactivated the two systems after a standby period during the most intense period of solar heat during the lunar day. Various scientific instruments are being activated, the rover will […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
The new year is off to a very impressive start in space science: ** China’s Chang’e 4 spacecraft landed on the far side of the moon. (See posting here.) ** OSIRIS REx successfully orbited Bennu, the smallest body ever orbited […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
China has successfully placed its Chang’e-4 spacecraft onto the surface of the far side of the Moon. It appears that the rover has also been released. This is the first time that any spacecraft has landed on the lunar far […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
The Apollo 8 mission launched on Dec. 21, 1968 with astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell Jr. and William Anders on board. About two and half hours after liftoff, the S-IV third stage fired for a second time and put their […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Israel’s nonprofit SpaceIL lunar lander mission to include time capsule
Dec18
on December 18, 2018
at 11:55 am
The Israeli non-profit SpaceIL organization now expects SpaceX to launch its lunar lander mission in February. SpaceIL was a competitor in the Google Lunar XPRIZE contest, which ended before any entrant reached the Moon. However, SpaceIL and several other GLXP […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
December 21st will mark the 50th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 8, the first time humans left earth orbit to reach another celestial object. While the landing on the surface of the Moon by Apollo 11 dominates the public’s […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
China heads for the Moon’s far side, NASA listens to Martian winds, and a Dragon arrives at the ISS
Dec08
Lots of activity in space this weekend: ** Moon: China launched on Friday the Chang’e-4 mission to the far side of the Moon. The 3,780 kg package includes a lander (1,200 kg), a rover (140 kg). This will be the first […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
[ Update: The Moon rocks sold near the top of the expected range of bids: Soviet robot-retrieved moon rocks sell for $855,000 at Sotheby’s | collectSPACE Sotheby’s on Thursday (Nov. 29) auctioned the only known pieces of Earth’s natural satellite […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Airbus, Blue Origin, ESA, and some other heavyweight companies and organizations are backing a new technical competition program called The Moon Race: The Moon Race competition is a global initiative founded by Airbus and international partners, aiming to boost the […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
The latest episode of TMRO:Space is now available on line: Masten’s Lunar Ambitions – Orbit 11.34 – TMRO Dave Masten of Masten Space Systems joins SpaceMike to talk about his current fleet of vehicle and plans to do more than just flags […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Bob Zimmerman tells me his book, Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, which tells the dramatic history of the first mission to send humans beyond earth orbit, is now available as an unabridged audiobook. From the press release: This year marks the fiftieth […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
** Paul Wooster of SpaceX talked at the recent Mars Society conference about the company’s plans for sending people to Mars by 2024: ** SpaceX’s Spacesuit, up close and personal – Tim Dodd, the Everyday Astronaut, describes SpaceX spacesuits during […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
The 21st Annual International Mars Society Convention starts tomorrow in Pasadena, California and will last through Sunday. Check out the schedule (pdf) packed with keynote talks and multiple parallel session tracks. There are over 40 different sessions listed in the Conference flyer (pdf). I […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Deposits of water in craters on the polar regions of the Moon has been indicated since the early 1990s when the Clementine probe saw radar reflections from the surface that were consistent with water ice. The Lunar Prospector mission not long after reported neutron scattering data […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
The non-profit volunteer Israeli organization SpaceIL announced last week that they had contracted SpaceX to launch a small spacecraft in December on a Falcon 9 rocket . The craft will land on the Moon in February: We Have a Launch and Landing […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Astronaut, Moon walker and artist, Alan Bean has passed away at the age of 86 following an illness that came on two weeks ago while traveling : Alan Bean Family Obituary Statement | NASA Bean was the lunar pilot on the Apollo […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Here is a video tour of important sites on the Moon as seen in the imagery and sensor data collected by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) since it reached the Moon in September of 2009: NASA — A Tour of our Moon From […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Pink Floyd notwithstanding, there is no “Dark side of the Moon” any more than there is a dark side of the earth. The Moon rotates just like earth does, continually changing which half of the sphere is in sunlight and […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
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