Image (Credit): Artist’s concept of a Chinese Moon base. (South China Morning Post)
“…scientific, technological, industrial and aerospace cooperation will sooner rather than later (send) the first Venezuelan man and woman to the moon in a Chinese spacecraft.”
–Statement by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in reference to an agreement with China that would train Venezuelan astronauts in China in preparation for a future Moon mission. China has previously stated its plans to land humans on the lunar surface by 2030 and establish a Moon base in the 2030s. Other countries have already signed agreements with China related to the lunar base, including Russia, Pakistan, and the United Arab Emirates.
A team recently calculated that most of the Moon’s permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) are at most around 3.4 billion years old and can contain relatively young deposits of water ice. Water resources are considered key for sustainable exploration of the Moon and beyond, but these findings suggest that current estimates for cold-trapped ices are too high.
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe was built to withstand the ravages of the environment near our sun—and with good reason. The car-size spacecraft has now flown through a giant solar outburst of charged particles called a coronal mass ejection (CME). If that CME had it hit Earth instead, it may have caused vast, continent-wide blackouts, scientists say. Some of those searing particles whipped through space at about three million miles per hour.
NASA’s Perseverance rover has done the unthinkable. Or, at least, a small device on the rover has. According to a tweet and article shared by NASA’s Perseverance team on Twitter, a device known only as MOXIE has proven that we can generate oxygen on Mars using the planet’s CO2-concentrated atmosphere. This tech is a huge boon, and the success of this story could help pave the way for future oxygen generation on the Red Planet, something that would make long-term exploration of the planet far more feasible.
Image (Credit): Artist’s rendering of the SLS. (NASA)
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently completed a review of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS), which is the cornerstone of the Artemis program. GAO assessed the extent to which (1) NASA has established plans to measure the SLS program costs post-Artemis I, and (2) the program has made progress with its plans to reduce projected SLS costs.
So what is the bottom line? This quote is most concerning: “Senior NASA officials told GAO that at current cost levels, the SLS program is unaffordable.”
The SLS is the vehicle that is supposed to demonstrate our ability to return to the Moon as well as our readiness for a Mars mission. But all of this is contingent on continued funding from Congress, and the congressional auditors have raised a red flag.
I expect you could find similar audit issues with the earlier Apollo missions as well as other space missions, yet NASA does not need to give Congress a reason to put money elsewhere. Let’s hope NASA’s leaders take the audit seriously and show some progress to keep all of the parties happy and the funding alive.
Image (Credit): Photo of the Vikram lander, which put the Pragyan rover on the Moon. (ISRO via AP/Alamy)
After a few weeks of work, India’s Pragyan rover on the Moon’s south pole was put to sleep last weekend to sit out the long lunar evening. It accomplished all of its goals, according to a Tweet from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO):
We shall know in a few weeks whether the little lander is ready for more work.
Nature magazine noted some of the findings from the rover’s primary mission, including:
ions and electrons swirling near the lunar pole;
variations in soil temperature;
a moonquake; and
presence of sulfur and other elements.
Whatever happens, the Indian rover has been a great success.
Image (Credit): Contrast between two views of the lunar surface from June 27, 2020, and Aug. 24, 2023, which is before and after the crash of Russia’s Luna-25 spacecraft. (NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Arizona State University)
If President Putin wanted to leave a mark, he has done so on the Moon. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has apparently located the spot where the Luna-25 spacecraft crashed, as shown in the before and after shot above.
Given that craters can last for billions of years on the Moon’s surface, we can rest assured that the Russians have made an indelible mark on a distant land.
Russia, let’s call it a win and recall those troops from Ukraine.
By the way, maybe we should call the new crater Putin’s Sunset.
