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27 November 2008
Chandrayaan-1 Feeling the Heat
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India's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft has successfully sent back some of its first science data and images from the moon, but the spacecraft is also experiencing rising temperatures, and mission managers have decided to use the instruments sparingly to avoid overheating. Chandrayaan-1 is currently orbiting over the sunlit side of the moon, and a rise in temperatures [...]
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14 November 2008
Moon Impact Probe Hits Paydirt (or pay-regolith…)
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The lunar impactor from the Chandrayaan-1 mission today successfully made it to the surface of the moon, impacting inside the Shackleton crater on the moon's south pole. The 34 kg box-shaped MIP (Moon Impact Probe) carried three instruments, and data was successfully transmitted from the 25-minute descent of the probe after it was ejected [...]
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08 November 2008
Chandrayaan-1 Now Successfully in Lunar Orbit
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Chandrayaan-1, India’s first unmanned spacecraft mission to moon, successfully entered lunar orbit on November 8. The spacecraft fired its engines to reduce velocity and enable the Moon's gravity to capture it; engines were fired for 817 seconds when Chandrayaan-1 was about 500 km away from the moon. Next up for the spacecraft will [...]
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06 November 2008
Chandrayaan-1 Closer to the Moon; Snaps First Lunar Shot
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Following the fifth and final orbit raising maneuver which put Chandrayaan-1 closer to the moon, the spacecraft snapped the first picture of its final destination. This clear, crisp image of the moon bodes well for spacecraft's mission to map the entire moon's surface with its Terrain Mapping Camera. And all systems are go [...]
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26 October 2008
Manueuver Puts Chandrayaan in Deep Space
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After a successful maneuver early today (October 26, 2008), the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft has crossed the 150,000 km distance mark from Earth, officially entering deep space, on course for the moon. This was the third orbit raising maneuver of the mission. The spacecraft’s 440 Newton liquid engine was fired for about nine and a half [...]
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24 October 2008
Life Will be Hard for Colonists - Kaguya Can't Find Water on the Moon
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It's been a long-held belief that the Moon is hiding significant quantities of water ice, safe from the Sun's ablative effects inside shady craters. One such crater is called Shackleton at the lunar South Pole and previous Moon missions have indicated it might hold a large reservoir of ice for all the water needs of [...]
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22 October 2008
India's Chandrayaan-1 On Its Way to the Moon
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Chandrayaan-1, India’s first mission to the Moon, was successfully launched earlier this morning from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SHAR) in Sriharikota, India. The PSLV-C11 rocket lifted off at 02:52 Central European Summer Time (CEST). About 20 minutes later the spacecraft was , injected into a highly elongated orbit around the Earth. [...]
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16 July 2008
Japanese SELENE (Kaguya) Lunar Mission Spots Apollo 15 Landing Site (Images)
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The Japanese lunar mission SELENE (Selenological and Engineering Explorer), also known as "Kaguya" has imaged the "halo" left behind in the lunar surface from Apollo 15's lunar module engine exhaust plume. This is the first time a mission after the Apollo Program has detected such a feature. Apollo 15 landed on the Moon in 1971 [...]
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17 June 2008
New Lunar Prototype Vehicles Tested (Gallery)
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NASA recently took some of its most promising new concepts for living and working on the moon and tried them out in a moon-like location near Lake Moses, Washington. Scout robots, rovers, cargo carriers, cranes and spacesuits endured sand storms and temperature swings to help test out the prototypes and prepare for future lunar expeditions. [...]
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13 April 2008
Japanese Moon Mission Returns Detailed Maps of the Lunar Surface
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The Japanese SELENE lunar orbiter has returned some of the most detailed maps of the Moon to date. The new collection of high-definition maps includes topological data and mineral location. Critically, the locations of uranium, thorium and potassium have been mapped, essential for mission planners when considering the future of manned settlements on the Moon. [...]
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14 January 2008
Make Room at the Moon
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Lunar orbit is getting to be a busy place, with several different countries sending spacecraft to the moon. Currently orbiting the moon are Japan’s Kaguya (also known as SELENE) spacecraft, which has been sending back 3-D movies of the lunar surface, and China’s Chang’e 1, which will gather information on the moon’s chemical composition [...]
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11 December 2007
NASA Announces a New Gravity Field Mission to the Moon
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Just in case you'd forgotten that the focus is going to be on the Moon for the next few decades, here's another mission announcement: the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL). Due to launch in 2011, this mission will fly a pair of spacecraft around the Moon to measure its gravity field in precise detail. [...]
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12 October 2007
Kaguya Releases Its Second Baby Satellite
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As we mentioned in past articles, the Japanese Kaguya spacecraft, now orbiting the Moon, is actually a collection of satellites. The largest satellite is Kaguya. It's the one equipped with all the cameras and the suite of scientific instruments.
But Kaguya was also carrying two baby satellites. The first Relay satellite, nicknamed Okina, was released [...]
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20 September 2007
Carnegie Mellon's New Prototype Lunar Rover
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Consider this: there are two rovers crawling around the surface of Mars. Isn't it strange that we don't have anything similar on the surface of the Moon. I mean, come on, it's so close. Well, researchers at Carnegie Mellon are working to fix this problem. They've been tasked by NASA to develop a prototype lunar [...]
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17 September 2007
Japan's Mission to the Moon Blasts Off
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If you think the Americans are going to be dominating lunar exploration, think again. Many countries are considering our heavenly companion, helping to unlock its secrets. The next mission to head off is the Japanese lunar probe Kayuga, which blasted off from the Tanegashima space center at 10:31:01 Japan Standard Time (01:31:01 UTC) on September [...]