Space Exploration

The last time a person visited the  moon  was in December 1972, during NASA's Apollo 17 mission. Over the decades, NASA planned to send people back to the moon but has yet to succeed. Astronauts often say the biggest reasons why humans haven't returned to the lunar surface are budgetary and political hurdles - not scientific or technical challenges. Private companies like  Blue Origin  or  SpaceX  may be the first entities to return people to the moon. Landing 14 people on the moon remains one of NASA's greatest achievements, if not the greatest. Astronauts collected rocks, took photos, performed experiments, planted some flags, and then came home. But those week-long stays during the Apollo program didn't establish a lasting human presence on the moon. More than 45 years after the most recent crewed moon landing - Apollo 17 in December 1972 - there are plenty of reasons to return people to Earth's giant, dusty ...

On February 13, 2019, an Israeli-built unmanned spacecraft is expected to land on the moon The probe will be launched sometime in December from Cape Canaveral aboard a  SpaceX   Falcon 9 rocket, officials said during the media event, held at an Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) space technology site in Yehud. It is scheduled to land on February 13, 2019. “We will put the Israeli flag on the moon,” said Ido Anteby, CEO of SpaceIL . “As soon as the spacecraft reaches the landing point it will be completely autonomous,” Anteby said. “The motor will brake the craft and it will reach the ground at zero speed for a soft landing.” “In the first stage the Israeli flag will be put on the moon,” he said. “During the landing the craft will photograph the landing area with stills and video and even record itself.” SpaceIL’s vehicle is just two meters in diameter and 1.5 meters tall standing on its four legs. It weighs 600 kilograms, making it the smallest craft to touchdown on the moon....

13 September 1959 Luna 2  (E-1A series) or  Lunik 2  was the second of the  Soviet Union's   Luna programme  spacecraft launched to the  Moon . It was the first spacecraft  to reach the surface of the Moon , and the first man-made object to land on another celestial body.  On September 13, 1959, it hit the Moon's surface east of  Mare Imbrium  near the craters Aristides,  Archimedes , and  Autolycus . Launch was scheduled for September 9, but the Blok I core stage was shut down after it failed to reach full thrust at ignition. The booster was removed from the pad and replaced by a different vehicle, delaying the flight by three days.  Luna 2 , like  Luna 1 , took a direct path to the Moon, with a velocity high enough to result in a travel time of around 36 hours.  Luna 2  hit the Moon about 800 kilometers (500 mi) from the centre of the visible disk on 1959 September 13 at 21:02:...

Written by David Trang Hawai'i Institute of Geophysics and Palaeontology :- Nearly all lunar impact craters smaller than 15 kilometers in diameter come in one basic shape, a circular bowl with a rim around it. However, there is a category, called concentric craters, with the basic crater and rim, plus a dough nut-shaped feature within the crater that is concentric to the crater rim. Jeffrey Gillis-Davis (University of Hawai‘i), the late B. Ray Hawke, and I (still at the University of Hawai‘i) decided to take on the task of determining how these concentric craters formed. After long meticulous measurements of their shape, determining their composition, examining their spatial relationship on the lunar surface, and calculating their age, we find that these craters are regular impact craters that experienced intrusions of magma beneath them. Each intrusion pushed on the material around the crater causing the construction of the concentric dough nut-shaped topographic ridge. ...

The first time India sent a lunar probe Chandrayaan to the moon in 2008, the world watched and applauded. It was a glowing moment in the country's tryst with space exploration program. And that it was at a project cost of Rs 386 crore ($59 million) and made India only the fourth country to plant a flag on the moon was a mammoth achievement. Now, ISRO is gearing up to send i ts second - Chandrayaan 2 - to the moon. Here is all you need to know about the mission that promises to underline India's space program and ability to go where few have gone before. * According to ISRO, Chandrayaan 2 is a completely indigenous mission which would comprise of an Orbiter, Lander and Rover. * After reaching the 100 kilometer lunar orbit, informs ISRO, the Lander housing the Rover will separate from the Orbiter. Following a controlled descent, the Lander will soft land on the moon at a specified time and then deploy the six-wheeled Rover. This Rover will then move around the landin...