Lunar Landings News and Discussions

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Indian lunar landing mission enters moon's orbit
https://phys.org/news/2023-08-indian-lu ... orbit.html
An Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) rocket carrying the Chandrayaan-3 lifts off on July 14, 2023.

India's latest space mission entered the moon's orbit on Saturday ahead of the country's second attempted lunar landing, as its cut-price space program seeks to reach new heights.

The world's most populous nation has a comparatively low-budget aerospace program that is rapidly closing in on the milestones set by global space powers.

Only Russia, the United States and China have previously achieved a controlled landing on the lunar surface.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) confirmed that Chandrayaan-3, which means "Mooncraft" in Sanskrit, had been "successfully inserted into the lunar orbit", more than three weeks after its launch.

If the rest of the current mission goes to plan, the mission will safely touch down near the moon's little-explored south pole between August 23 and 24.

India's last attempt to do so ended in failure four years ago, when ground control lost contact moments before landing.

Developed by ISRO, Chandrayaan-3 includes a lander module named Vikram, which means "valor" in Sanskrit, and a rover named Pragyan, the Sanskrit word for wisdom.

The mission comes with a price tag of $74.6 million—far smaller than those of other countries, and a testament to India's frugal space engineering.

Experts say India can keep costs low by copying and adapting existing space technology, and thanks to an abundance of highly skilled engineers who earn a fraction of their foreign counterparts' wages.

[wjfox]

Russia launches first space mission to Moon in 47 years

7 hours ago

Russia launched its first mission to the surface of the Moon in nearly half a century, in a bid to be the first country to land on the lunar south pole.

Moscow's Luna 25 mission lifted off on schedule from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Russian Far East.

The Moon's south pole is believed to hold deposits of water.

The Russian mission is racing against India, which sent up its own lander last month that is already orbiting the Moon.

Russia's space chief told Interfax the lander is expected to touch down on 21 August. As of earlier this week, India's Chandrayaan-3's spacecraft was due to reach the surface on 23 August.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-66470294

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Russia's moon craft starts processing first data - space agency
Guy Faulconbridge
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/russian-scien ... Y0F_JVkOdu

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia on Sunday switched on the scientific instruments aboard its lunar lander and scientists began processing its first data as the space craft sped towards the moon in a bid to be first to find ice on the Earth's only natural satellite.

The Russian Luna-25 mission, the first since 1976, is racing against India, which launched its Chandrayaan-3 lunar lander last month, to complete a soft landing on the moon's south pole where scientists believe there are pockets of water ice.

A Soyuz 2.1 rocket carrying the Luna-25 craft blasted off from the Vostochny cosmodrome in Russia's Far East at 2:11 a.m. on Friday Moscow time and was boosted out of Earth's orbit an hour later.

As it hurtles towards the moon, which is 384,400 km (238,855 miles) from our planet, the scientific instruments were switched on with the first data on the flight measured, Russia's space agency said.

"The first measurement data on the flight to the Moon has been obtained, and the project's scientific team has begun processing it," Roscosmos said.

"Luna-25 continues its flight to the Earth's natural satellite - all systems of the automatic station are working properly, communication with it is stable, the energy balance is positive," it said.

Luna-25, roughly the size of a small car, will aim to operate for a year on the moon's south pole, where scientists at NASA and other space agencies in recent years have detected traces of water ice in the region's shadowed craters.

There is much riding on the Luna-25 mission for Russia: if it succeeds, Russia is likely to say it shows that the West's sanctions over the Ukraine war cannot hold Russia back.

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Penetrating radar aboard the Chang'E-4 rover reveals layers of the moon's history

https://phys.org/news/2023-08-penetrati ... rover.html
A team of space scientists at the Planetary Science Institute, working with colleagues from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen University and the University of Aberdeen, has used data from China's Chang'E-4 rover to learn more about the history of the moon. In their study, reported in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, the group analyzed lunar-penetrating radar (LPR) data sent back from the rover.

China's Chang'E-4 rover has been wandering around on the far side of the moon since 2018. And during its meanderings, it has been sending radio signals downward using its LPR device. That same device detects and records signals that are bounced back—a form of radar. Three years ago, another team of researchers used a subset of the same data to create a subsurface map extending 40 meters below the surface. In this new paper, the research team has built on that effort, creating a subsurface map extending 300 meters below the surface.

The research team has found that the top 300 meters of the moon's surface is made up of several layers of material, some broken rock, some dust and some soil. The researchers have also found evidence of a hidden crater. Below that, they found layers of lava—evidence of the moon's volcanic past.

[spryfusion]

[raklian]

Yeah, saw that earlier. Congratulations to India for a job well done!

[wjfox]

Stunning achievement by India. The south pole is the most promising region in terms of future human settlements. Big milestone for lunar exploration!

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[wjfox]