Lunar Landings News and Discussions

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Japan to build NASA a Moon camper van you can drive without spacesuits
By David Szondy
April 14, 2024

When NASA returns to the Moon, its astronauts will enjoy tooling around in a pressurized camper van courtesy of JAXA and Toyota. The two-person vehicle is part of a US/Japan agreement that includes putting the first Japanese astronauts on the Moon.

It's beginning to look like NASA's program to establish a permanent human presence on the Moon will resemble a car show as much as it does a scientific expedition. The space agency recently awarded contracts to develop an open off road vehicle to carry astronauts around on the Moon, though these are small and the driver and passengers have to wear spacesuits. Meanwhile, the Japanese vehicle being developed by JAXA and Toyota is a mobile outpost where the crew can live and work for up to 30 days in a shirt sleeve environment.

No doubt while wearing loud Hawaiian shirts.

https://newatlas.com/space/moon-van-pre ... d-vehicle/

[firestar464]

pov: the moon car gets damaged

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Japan's Lunar Lander Awakens After Its Third Lunar Night
The designers didn't expect it to survive even one night on the Moon.
By Ryan Whitwam April 26, 2024

Japan's first-ever lunar landing didn't have the most auspicious beginning. SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) reached the Moon early this year, but it came to rest on its nose with the solar panels at an inconvenient angle. That early misstep is in the past, as the probe proves it has real staying power on the Moon. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) confirms that SLIM has awoken after its third lunar night cycle, and it's still got more to give.

As interest in the Moon has ramped up after decades of focus on low-Earth orbit, we often hear about the limits imposed by long lunar nights. Space agencies and private aerospace firms usually caution as they work toward landings that their hardware is only designed to last a few days or weeks—night on the Moon lasts for the equivalent of two Earth weeks. Although we think of the Moon, and space in general, as frigid, it experiences wild temperature swings. On the Moon, temperatures range from 250 degrees Fahrenheit during the day to -200 Fahrenheit at night (about 120 to -130 degrees Celsius). It can be even colder in shadowed craters, too.

https://www.extremetech.com/science/jap ... unar-night

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275-language disk headed to moon to preserve Earth linguistics
by Ryo Sasaki
May 27, 2024

Introduction:

(The Asahi Shimbun) A memory disk containing 275 languages will be launched on a lunar landing craft in winter this year as part of efforts to preserve the Earth's linguistic diversity in the event of a global calamity.

Japanese firm ispace Inc., which is proceeding with the private Hakuto-R moon exploration mission, announced May 7 that the storage medium will be sent to the lunar surface.

The inclusion is in line with UNESCO’s policy of passing down humanity’s cultural heritage.

According to ispace’s accounts, the decision was made during a meeting held on May 6 at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris.

The effort is part of a program aimed at retaining linguistic diversity in the event languages are lost amid predicted climate change, natural disasters and other future global crises.

Read more here: https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15260523

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China's Chang’e-6 Probe Lifts Off From Far Side of Moon With Sample and Returns to Orbit
Chang’e-6 could be the first mission to return samples from the Moon's far side when the descent module lands later this month.
By Ryan Whitwam June 4, 2024

Samples from the far side of the Moon are now en route back to Earth. China's Chang’e-6 mission landed on the Moon over the weekend, and it has since collected a sample of lunar regolith. That material began its journey to Earth late yesterday with the successful departure of Chang’e-6's ascent vehicle. This will mark the first time samples from this region of the Moon have been returned to Earth.

Chang’e-6 left Earth on May 3, departing from China's Wenchang spaceport. Just a few days later, it reached lunar orbit. The China National Space Administration (CNSA) spent several weeks conducting orbital science and preparing for the historic landing. The 3.2-ton lander reached the Moon on June 1, setting down in Apollo Crater, which is part of the South Pole-Aitken basin, where more missions are expected to land in the coming years.

https://www.extremetech.com/science/chi ... nd-returns

[wjfox]

China space probe returns with rare Moon rocks

25 June 2024, 07:10 BST

China's lunar probe has returned to Earth with the first ever samples from the Moon's unexplored far side.

The Chang'e-6 landed in the Inner Mongolia desert on Tuesday, after a nearly two-month long mission that was fraught with risks.

Scientists are eagerly awaiting the Chang’e 6 as the samples could answer key questions about how planets are formed.

China is the only country to have landed on the far side of the Moon, having done so before in 2019.

The far side - which faces away from Earth - is technically challenging to reach due to its distance, and its difficult terrain of giant craters and few flat surfaces.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c04447venm1o



Credit: EPA

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China's Lunar Lander Finds More Evidence of Water On Moon
High-latitude mineral samples obtained by the Chang'e 5 mission consist of over 40% water molecules.
By Adrianna Nine July 24, 2024

Once thought to be a dry ball of gray dust, the Moon is slowly revealing itself to contain more water than scientists could ever have predicted. Researchers involved in China's Chang'e 5 lunar lander mission say several newly analyzed regolith samples are "enriched" with water. These samples, collected from a higher latitude than samples assessed previously, suggest that water molecules can exist as hydrated salts in sunlit lunar regions.

Chang'e 5 snagged nearly four pounds of lunar soil samples before its return to Earth in 2020. Since then, researchers with the China National Space Administration (CNSA), Chinese Atomic Energy Authority, and Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have been busy searching the samples for various clues and resources, including Changesite-Y—a "new" mineral that could be used for nuclear fusion—and water. Scientists confirmed last year that glass beads formed via meteorite impacts contain up to 0.2% water by mass, thanks to their ability to serve as a reservoir for water molecules generated by solar wind.

https://www.extremetech.com/science/chi ... er-on-moon

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NASA Taps Intuitive Machines to Deliver Six Instruments to the Moon
The $116.9 million mission is expected to launch in 2027.
By Ryan Whitwam August 30, 2024

https://www.extremetech.com/science/nas ... o-the-moon
NASA has assembled a collection of six instruments it wants to get to the lunar surface, and it has turned to Texas-based Intuitive Machines to do it. The latest award in NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program is valued at a whopping $116.9 million. The mission will aim to land the NASA payloads near the lunar south pole, where shadowy craters could help future explorers understand the origin of water throughout the solar system.

The CLPS program has been running since 2018 with the goal of delivering important science instruments to the Moon using private aerospace firms. NASA considers this part of the Artemis initiative, which will culminate with the first crewed lunar landings in 50 years later this decade. Before humans begin exploring the Moon's southern latitudes, it's ideal to have an idea of what resources they might be able to access.

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The space suit Chinese astronauts will wear on the Moon
By David Szondy
October 01, 2024

China is planning to put people on the Moon around 2030 and is showing off the new space suits they'll be wearing. At a media event, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) had two astronauts put the suits through their paces for the cameras.

According to current plans, the CMSA intends to land on the Moon somewhere near the lunar south pole by the end of the decade using its Mengzhou crewed spacecraft and the Lanyue crewed lunar lander. However, getting to the Moon isn't much of an achievement if you can't step outside for a stroll, so space suits are as important as the spacecraft and lander.

It's a big challenge because, outside of experimental and development projects, there haven't been any lunar space suits used since the Apollo era that ended with Apollo 17 in 1972. Today, space suits are divided into emergency suits designed to protect the crew during launch and reentry in the event of a loss of air pressure, and more complicated EVA suits that are made of more robust materials and more flexible joints to allow astronauts to leave the spacecraft in orbit and protect them against the harsh environment of open space.

https://newatlas.com/space/chinese-moon-space-suit/

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$2 Billion Firefly Aerospace Sending Lunar Lander to the Moon in Mid January 2025
November 26, 2024 by Brian Wang

Firefly Aerospace successfully completed environmental testing on Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander ahead of its first mission to the Moon supporting NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. Firefly is now preparing to ship the lander to Cape Canaveral, Florida, in mid-December for launch on

Following launch and vehicle separation, Blue Ghost will begin its approximately 45-day transit to the Moon, allowing ample time to conduct robust health checks and begin payload operations on orbit. Blue Ghost will then land in Mare Crisium and operate payloads for a full lunar day (14 Earth days). As part of NASA’s CLPS initiative, the 10 payloads will perform numerous science and technology demonstrations, including lunar subsurface drilling, sample collection, and dust mitigation to advance research for future human missions on the Moon. Additional demonstrations, including X-ray imaging of Earth’s magnetic field, will also benefit humans on Earth, providing insights into how space weather impacts the planet.

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2024/11/2 ... -2025.html