Tag Archives: lunar

Artist’s rendering of a Solsys system that mechanically sorts regolith before dissolving nutrients into water. (Image: Solsys/ESA)The European Space Agency (ESA) announced Wednesday that it’s launched a new project that will help determine the feasibility of farming on the moon. The project, “Enabling Lunar In-Situ Agriculture by Producing Fertilizer from …

NASA is on the verge of finally launching the first Space Launch System (SLS) rocket after years of development. The Artemis 1 mission won’t have a crew onboard, but by the third launch, the SLS will be taking astronauts back to the moon for the first time in 50 years. …

We’re still several weeks away from what could be the first launch of NASA’s Artemis program, but humans won’t return to the moon quite yet. First, NASA needs a way to get astronauts to and from the lunar surface, and it’ll have two different ways to do that. It’s already …

China made history in 2018 when it landed the Chang’e 4 mission on the lunar surface. The lander deployed a plucky little rover known as Yutu-2, which is still trundling around the far side of the moon—a first for humanity. Late last year, the rover spotted something unusual in the …

The moon is a big deal again. NASA is currently working toward a return to the lunar surface with the Artemis program and the (heavily delayed) Space Launch System rocket. Recently, the Australian Space Agency announced it would cooperate with NASA to send a rover to the moon in 2026, …

NASA has chosen the western edge of Nobile Crater at the Moon’s south pole as the landing site for its upcoming Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER). An illustration of NASA’s VIPER lunar rover. Image credit: NASA / Ames Research Center / Daniel Rutter. NASA’s VIPER rover will land near …

  We’ve all been laser-focused on Mars as a site for future human outposts, but let’s not forget about the Moon. It’s only marginally less habitable than Mars right now, and it’s a lot closer. Thanks to radiation and temperature variation, however, the safest place for a long-term human presence …

  NASA is still officially planning to land humans on the moon as part of the Artemis program in 2024, but the latest developments at the agency make that timeline look increasingly unrealistic. After previously expecting to move forward with the development of commercial lunar landers this month, NASA has …

Lunar Subsurface May Be Richer in Metals than Previously Thought Using data from the Miniature Radio Frequency (Mini-RF) instrument onboard NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), a team of U.S. researchers has characterized the dust found at the bottom of the Moon’s craters and found evidence that the lunar subsurface might …

NASA Awards Launch Contract for Water-Hunting Lunar Rover For the first time in years, NASA is gearing up to send humans to the Moon. The agency’s Artemis program aims to have boots on the Moon by 2024, but those boots will necessarily be preceded by wheels. VIPER is one of …