Space Station Threshold

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 ...

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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. [...]

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 ...

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. [...]

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 ...

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 [...]