NASA has announced that it has chosen three different scientific payloads under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, which is a component of the Artemis program. The Artemis program aims to send humans back to the moon for the first time since the Apollo era. One of the three missions NASA has chosen will be landing on the far side of the moon facing away from Earth.
The Moon has two 'sides,' one that perpetually faces the Earth and another that perpetually faces away from our planet. Many refer to this as the Moon's far side, one that hasn't gotten as much attention from scientists as the part we can directly observe. That has slowly changed, however, and now NASA plans to join the work.
The Moon is full of dust that, NASA learned during its Apollo missions, is a bigger issue than the dust you may encounter on Earth. Whereas Earth dust is generally eroded into dull, rounded shapes, the tiny dust particles on the lunar surface are sharp and glass-like, making them as damaging to equipment as they are to human lungs. Soon, though, NASA will start testing a solution to the problem.
A little more than a week after South Korea signed the Artemis Accords, NASA has announced that New Zealand is also on board with the commitment. According to the space agency, New Zealand Space Agency's Dr. Peter Crabtree signed the Artemis Accords on May 31, only a week after the Republic of Korea, making it the 11th country to join.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is offering details on some of the technology it plans to use on future lunar missions. The agency plans to obtain data from the surface of the moon by using a transformable lunar robot. Data collected by the robot will aid the space agency in the design for the crewed pressurized rover.
NASA has announced that South Korea is now among the countries that have signed the Artemis Accords, joining other nations like the UK, UAE, Japan, Canada, Australia, and more. The Artemis Accords set forth a series of principles that the countries will follow, including everything from the public release of data to the safe and peaceful exploration of our Moon.
This month will end with a special treat for those who love staring up at the cosmos: a supermoon eclipse. On May 26, NASA explains, the moon will not only look unusually large due to being at its nearest approach to Earth, it'll also turn a lovely shade of red. Even better, because this a lunar eclipse, you won't need any special glasses to watch it.
NASA plans to send its Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) to the Moon in 2023, the space agency has announced. This will be its first mobile robot, NASA said, and it'll be tasked with exploring the lunar surface's most extreme areas. The goal is to map resources found around the Moon's South Pole, ones that astronauts may be able to harvest one day.
An incredible network of lunar satellites, ringing the Moon and powering a telecoms and navigation system there, is another step closer to reality, the European Space Agency has announced today. The ESA's Moonlight plan would address one of the growing areas of concern as humanity plans a crewed return to the lunar surface, delivering stable communications between teams and back with mission control on Earth.
May has been a big month for China when it comes to space exploration. The country recently announced that it had landed successfully on the surface of Mars. China has also announced that its Yutu-2 rover is gearing up to wake up and continue exploring the far side of the moon. Yutu-2 has been on the far side of the moon since January 2019 and has completed 29 lunar days of activity as of April 23, 2021.
A group of scientists has a plan to help radio astronomers see further into the universe's past. The plan involves placing a radio telescope on the moon's far side to help them learn more about the beginnings of the universe. The concept is known as the Lunar Crater Radio Telescope (LCRT). The program has raised $500,000 and has entered the second phase of NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts program.
NASA may have awarded SpaceX the Artemis 2024 Moon lander contract, but rival bidders Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Dynetics are already protesting the US space agency's decision. The two companies filed protests this week after Elon Musk's SpaceX won a $2.9 billion contract to develop the spacecraft which will return American astronauts to the surface of the Moon.