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Will China Beat Us to the Moon?
With the newly announced delays related to the Artemis lunar program, it is fair to ask whether the U.S. might fall behind the Chinese when it comes to a crewed lunar mission (of course, we won that battle 50 years ago, but you know that I mean). All reports indicate that the Chinese wants to…
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Space Quote: Another View of Elon and Drugs
“If we’re going to link performance to attitudes about drugs, maybe Musk should be setting the tone for NASA. Perhaps a microdosing schedule would get federal employees out of their ruts and set their creative juices flowing.” -Statement by J.D. Tuccille in his Reason magazine article, “Let Elon Musk Enjoy Drugs.” The libertarian magazine has…
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Sample Return: NASA Just Needed the Right Tool
It is amazing that we have the ability to launch a spacecraft that can chase an asteroid millions of miles away, but we lack a wrench here on Earth to open the sample container when some of that asteroid is sent home. You may remember the problems NASA had last year opening the lid on…
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Pic of the Week: Dwarf Irregular Galaxy UGC 8091
The image this week is from the NASA/European Space Agency’s (ESA) Hubble Space Telescope. It shows an irregular dwarf galaxy, UGC 8091, that is about seven million light-years away. What I see appears to be jellyfish within some cloudy water. I also the variety of other galaxies you can see throughout the image (see below).…
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Sidebar: The Griffin Mission
I did not follow up on yesterday’s post when Astrobotic said it was moving onto its Griffin mission. What is that? The Griffin mission involved a lunar lander as well, but this time the destination will be the Moon’s South Pole. The lander will deploy NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER), which will be…
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Moon Malaise This Week – Two Missions Impacted
NASA said we would have weeks like this one. First we have the compromised Peregrine Lunar Lander floating in space. Astrobotic posted this update earlier today: Given the propellant leak, there is, unfortunately, no chance of a soft landing on the Moon. However, we do still have enough propellant to continue to operate the vehicle…
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Musk and the Drug Issue, Again
You might think a company would love to be on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, and that is generally true, but not when the headline is this one: “Some Tesla, SpaceX Leaders Worried by Musk Drug Use.” The article states: …they fear the Tesla and SpaceX chief executive’s drug use could have…
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Bad News for Latest US Moon Mission
We started with high hopes, yet a problem has already threatened the success of Astrobotic’s mission to the Moon. Shortly after a successful lift off earlier this morning, the Peregrine lunar lander started reporting issues with its propulsion system, which impacted its ability to charge its batteries. Fortunately, the charging issue was resolved, yet the…
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The US Aims to be Back on the Moon Next Month
After ending launches to the Moon’s surface more than 50 years, NASA is funding a lunar mission that launches tomorrow morning. United Launch Alliance (ULA) will be using its new Vulcan rocket to launch the Astrobotic mission towards the Moon. ULA, as noted earlier, has a lot riding on this new rocket as it seeks a…
