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.
NASA and SpaceX came to an agreement that will see the SpaceX Starship rocket take humans back to the moon in 2024. NASA is currently operating the Artemis program with the goal of sending humans back to the moon and establishing a long-term and sustainable human presence on and around the moon by the end of the 2020s. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk recently said that he believes SpaceX will be ready to put astronauts on the moon in 2024.
Today we're taking a look at the NASA Artemis mission in as basic a way as possible - think of this as the doorway to interest in the whole mission from start to finish. Today we're looking at what Artemis is and what the most important components of the future of NASA's deep space exploration plans are.
NASA has announced SpaceX will build the Artemis Lunar Lander, the craft which will return American astronauts to the surface of the Moon. The Artemis mission is scheduled to launch in 2024, and the Human Landing System will be instrumental in NASA's plan to not only build a sustainable presence on the Moon but pave the way to crewed missions to Mars and other deep space exploration.
A new Moon rover project is in the works, with the UAE partnering with Japanese robotics company ispace on the Emirates Lunar Mission. Unlike NASA's Perseverance and Curiosity rovers, which are currently on Mars, the Rashid rover that the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) has in mind for 2022 will be a lot more compact. It'll also tap SpaceX for transportation.