Lunar Mission

Chandrayaan-3 landed on possibly oldest craters of Moon: Researchers

India's lunar mission Chandrayaan-3 possibly landed in one of the oldest craters of the Moon, according to scientists who analysed images from the mission and satellites. The crater was formed during the Nectarian period, which dates back to 3.85 billion years and is one of the oldest time periods in the Moon's history, the team, including researchers from the Physical Research Laboratory and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Ahmedabad, said. S Vijayan, an associate professor in the Planetary Sciences Division, Physical Research Laboratory, told PTI, "Chandrayaan-3 landing site is a unique geological setting where no other missions have gone. The images from the mission's Pragyan rover are the first on-site ones of the Moon at this latitude. They reveal how the Moon evolved over time". A crater is formed when an asteroid crashes into the surface of a larger body like a planet or a Moon, and the displaced material is called 'ejecta'. Revealing how the Moon evolved over time

What's on the Moon's far side? China's Chang'e-6 samples reveal first clues

The Chang'e-6 mission samples represent a combination of mature lunar soil mixed with recently ejected materials

Nasa to establish Lunar Time Standard to set standard time system for Moon

The proposed lunar time standard is to be based on a weighted average of atomic clocks placed on the Moon. It aims to create a standardised time system for the moon

Dry moon theory challenged as China finds traces of water in moon's soil

The lunar soil brought back by China's Chang'e-5 mission in 2020 has led to the discovery of a hydrated mineral containing molecular water

Chandrayaan's rover makes significant discoveries on Moon's south pole

The Chandrayaan-3 mission's Pragyan rover found small rock fragments scattered around the rim, wall slopes, and floor of small craters in the southern high-latitude landing area

In a first, China's Chang'e-6 brings samples from Moon's far side

Soon after the capsule landed, Zhang Kejian, head of the China National Space Administration, announced the successful completion of the Chang'e-6 lunar mission

Chang'e-7 mission: Egypt, Bahrain join China to build hyperspectral camera

The Egyptian Space Agency, Bahrain's National Space Science Agency, and Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics signed an agreement for the joint development of hyperspectral camera

China's Chang'e-6 spacecraft makes historic landing on far side of moon

The China National Space Administration announced that Chang'e-6 "successfully landed at the designated landing area," the Xinhua News Agency reported

China sending probe to get samples from less-explored far side of moon

China is preparing to launch a lunar probe on Friday that would land on the far side of the moon and return with samples that could provide insights into geological and other differences between the less-explored region and the better-known near side. The unprecedented mission would be the latest advance in the increasingly sophisticated and ambitious space exploration program that is now competing with the US, still the leader in space. China already landed a rover on the moon's far side in 2019, the first country to do so. Free from exposure to Earth and other interference, the moon's somewhat mysterious far side is ideal for radio astronomy and other scientific work. Because the far side never faces Earth, a relay satellite is a needed to maintain communications. The Chang'e lunar exploration probe is named after the Chinese mythical moon goddess. The probe is being carried on a Long March-5 YB rocket set for liftoff on Friday evening from the Wenchang launch centre on the south

After Odysseus, Intuitive Machines sets sights on second moon landing

Nasa is counting on a series of low-budget, private excursions to the moon to serve as pathfinders for missions carrying astronauts this decade

US-made lunar lander 'Odysseus' may have tipped while reaching the moon

The complication could be a setback for Intuitive Machines and partner NASA

Know about 'Odysseus', Intuitive Machines' private lander on Moon: 5 points

The mission dubbed as 'IM-1' is Intuitive Machines' first mission through NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative - a key part of NASA's Artemis program

Why it took the US more than half a century to get back on the moon

The biggest hurdle may have been the 21st century engineers and companies with little or no moonshot experience

America's Odysseus spacecraft makes 1st commercial moon landing in history

Notably, this landing comes months after India's Chandrayaan-3 lander, which became the first spacecraft from the country to safely reach the lunar surface in August 2023

US company's lunar lander rockets to attempt landing on moon next week

Another private US company took a shot at the moon on Thursday, launching a month after a rival's lunar lander missed its mark and came crashing back. NASA, the main sponsor with experiments on board, is hoping for a successful moon landing next week as it seeks to jumpstart the lunar economy ahead of astronaut missions. SpaceX's Falcon rocket blasted off in the middle of the night from NASA's Kennedy Space Centre, dispatching Intuitive Machines' lunar lander on its way to the moon, 230,000 miles (370,000 kilometres) away. If all goes well, a touchdown attempt would occur on February 22, after a day in lunar orbit. Only five countries the US, Russia, China, India and Japan have scored a lunar landing and no private business has yet done so. The US has not returned to the moon's surface since the Apollo program ended more than five decades ago. There have been a lot of sleepless nights getting ready for this, Intuitive Machines' co-founder and chief executive Steve Altemus said ..

Japan spacecraft lands on lunar surface, becomes 5th country to reach moon

Japan's space agency said early Saturday that its spacecraft is on the moon, but is still "checking its status". More details will be given at a news conference, officials said. The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM, came down onto the lunar surface at around 12:20 am. Tokyo time Saturday (1520 GMT Friday). No astronauts were onboard the spacecraft. If SLIM landed successfully, Japan would become the fifth country to accomplish the feat after the United States, the Soviet Union, China and India. As the spacecraft descended, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's mission control said that everything was going as planned and later said that SLIM was on the lunar surface. But there was no mention of whether the landing was successful. Mission control kept repeating that it was checking its status" and that more information would be given at a news conference. It wasn't immediately clear when the news conference would start. SLIM, nicknamed "the Moon Sniper," started its

Chandrayaan-3 lander serving as location marker near lunar south pole

An instrument on Chandrayaan-3 lander has started serving as a location marker near the lunar south pole, the ISRO said on Friday. The Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA) on the Chandrayaan-3 lander has begun serving as a fiducial point (precisely located markers for reference) on the Moon, the national space agency headquartered here said in a statement. US space agency NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) achieved a laser range measurement using the LRA by successfully detecting signals reflected by it on December 12, 2023, it said. "The ranging utilised the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) on the LRO. The observation occurred during lunar night time, with the LRO ascending to the east of Chandrayaan-3," ISRO said. NASA's LRA was accommodated on the Chandrayaan-3 Vikram lander under international collaboration. It comprises eight corner-cube retroreflectors on a hemispherical support structure. This array facilitates lasers ranging from various directions by any orbiting .

US-made lunar lander has 'no chance' of touching down on moon: Report

Astrobotic's announcement comes a day after the moon lander, called Peregrine, launched aboard United Launch Alliance LLC's new Vulcan rocket but suffered an apparent propulsion issue in space

China says it will launch its next lunar explorer in the first half of 2024

China's space agency said on Wednesday that its latest lunar explorer had arrived at the launch site in preparation for a mission to the moon in the first half of this year. State broadcaster CCTV posted photos on its website of the unit under wraps as it was unloaded from a large cargo airplane earlier this week and then transported by flatbed truck to the Wenchang launch site on southern China's Hainan island. The announcement came a day after a US company abandoned a lunar landing planned for February 23 because of a fuel leak that started soon after takeoff on Monday. China and the US are both pursuing plans to land astronauts on the moon in what has become a growing rivalry in space. The US plans to do so in 2026, and China's target date is before 2030. The China National Space Administration said that pre-launch tests would be carried out on its Chang'e-6 probe. The mission's goals include bringing back samples from the far side of the moon. Another US moon lander from a Hou

After new rocket's successful launch, US moon lander faces malfunction

"The team is responding in real time as the situation unfolds and will be providing updates as data is obtained and analysed," Astrobotic posted on the social media service X