Tag: Moon
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China publishes Chang’e 4 data one year after first landing on far side of the moon
The Yutu 2 rover is pictured on the far side of the moon soon after landing in January 2019. This image was taken by a camera on the Chang’e 4 mission’s stationary landing platform. Credit: CNSA/CLEP Chinese officials marked the one-year anniversary of the Chang’e 4 mission’s historic first soft landing on the far side…
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Aerojet Rocketdyne signs on the bottom line to build hardware for moon missions
Lockheed Martin’s Mike Hawes and Scott Jones sign copies of a contract for Orion rocket hardware, after Aerojet Rocketdyne’s Ken Young and Cheryl Rehm take their turn. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle) REDMOND, Wash. — Representatives of Aerojet Rocketdyne and Lockheed Martin put their signatures on a contract for up to $170 million worth of…
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Amateur sleuth helps locate crash site of India’s Vikram moon lander
This before and after image ratio highlights changes to the surface; the impact point is near center of the image and stands out due the dark rays and bright outer halo. Note the dark streak and debris about 100 meters to the south-southeast of the impact point. Diagonal straight lines are uncorrected background artifacts. Credits:…
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SpaceX offering Starship to NASA for lunar landing missions
Artist’s concept of SpaceX’s Starship on the lunar surface. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX is eligible to propose using its next-generation Starship vehicle to carry NASA robotic science payloads to the lunar surface, the U.S. space agency announced Monday, on missions that could precede future Starship flights with people on-board. SpaceX is one of five companies NASA…
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NASA adds five companies, including Blue Origin and SpaceX, to moon delivery list
Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lander is designed for deliveries to the moon. (Blue Origin Illustration) Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture is among five companies that have just been cleared to deliver payloads to the moon for NASA. So is Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which is offering its Starship super-rocket for lunar trips. Sierra…
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Kid-friendly lunar rover takes the spotlight in the city where moon buggies were born
Eleven-year-old Chanel Lam gets some tips on moon-buggy driving from Charlie Martin, a retired Boeing employee who worked on the Apollo-era lunar rovers. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle) KENT, Wash. — The City of Kent’s newest lunar rover wouldn’t stand up to the radiation-blasted conditions on the surface of the moon, but it’s designed to…
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NASA cracks open a sample of moon soil that’s been shut away for four decades
Apollo sample processors Andrea Mosie, Charis Krysher and Juliane Gross open lunar sample 73002 at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. (NASA Photo / James Blair) For the first time in more than 40 years, NASA has opened up a pristine sample of moon dirt and rocks that was collected during the Apollo missions. Scientists…
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Boeing proposes lunar lander for NASA crews, rivaling Blue Origin (and SpaceX?)
An artist’s conception shows the ascent module taking off from the descent module on Boeing’s lunar lander. (Boeing Illustration) Boeing says it has submitted its proposal for a lunar lander capable of putting astronauts on the moon by as early as 2024, joining a competition that includes Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture…
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One year after Planetary Resources faded into history, space mining retains its appeal
An artist’s conception shows Planetary Resources’ Arkyd 300 spacecraft prospecting amid a cluster of asteroids. (Planetary Resources Illustration) It’s been a year since the Redmond, Wash.-based asteroid mining venture known as Planetary Resources was acquired by ConsenSys and pivoted to blockchain projects in space — but the idea of mining space resources still resonates among…
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NASA’s VIPER rover in development for scouting mission to moon’s south pole
NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER, is a mobile robot that will roam around the moon’s south pole looking for water ice. Credit: NASA Ames/Daniel Rutter Building on a mission canceled last year, NASA is developing a mobile robot named VIPER for launch in 2022 to scout for water ice at the moon’s…