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PRIME-1
IM-2 was a lunar mission run by Intuitive Machines as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. It was launched on 27 February 2025, at 00:16:30UTC. The Nova-C lunar lander, named ''Athena'', reached the surface of the Moon on 6 March 2025, at 17:28:50UTC. Contact was temporarily lost during the landing process; when it was re-established, it indicated that the spacecraft was not in the correct orientation and one of the two radio antennas was not operating. The sideways orientation prevented the spacecraft from generating sufficient power. By 7 March, ''Athena''s power had been fully depleted and was not expected to replenish, bringing the mission to its end. ''Athena'' was designed to investigate the presence and quantity of lunar water ice using PRIME-1, a payload of a drill and mass spectrometer. ''Athena'' also carried a drone that was equipped with a neutron spectrometer to explore the permanently shadowed region (PSR) of Marston crater near the l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nova-C
The Intuitive Machines Nova-C, or simply Nova-C, is a class of lunar lander, lunar landers designed by Intuitive Machines (IM) to deliver small payloads to the surface of the Moon. Intuitive Machines was one of three service providers awarded task orders in 2019 for delivery of NASA science payloads to the Moon. The IM-1 lunar lander, named ''Odysseus'' (pronounced ), was launched by a SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5, Falcon 9 rocket on 15 February 2024, reached lunar orbit on 21 February, and landed on the lunar surface on 22 February. This marked the inaugural Nova-C landing on the Moon and the first American spacecraft to perform a soft landing on the Moon in over 50 years. It is the first spacecraft to use methalox propulsion to navigate between the Earth and the Moon. The second Nova-C lander with the IM-2 ''Athena'' mission with Micro-Nova ''Gracie'' and other rovers and payloads was launched on 27 February 2025, and a third Nova-C lander on the IM-3 mission is scheduled fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Intuitive Machines Nova-C
The Intuitive Machines Nova-C, or simply Nova-C, is a class of lunar landers designed by Intuitive Machines (IM) to deliver small payloads to the surface of the Moon. Intuitive Machines was one of three service providers awarded task orders in 2019 for delivery of NASA science payloads to the Moon. The IM-1 lunar lander, named ''Odysseus'' (pronounced ), was launched by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on 15 February 2024, reached lunar orbit on 21 February, and landed on the lunar surface on 22 February. This marked the inaugural Nova-C landing on the Moon and the first American spacecraft to perform a soft landing on the Moon in over 50 years. It is the first spacecraft to use methalox propulsion to navigate between the Earth and the Moon. The second Nova-C lander with the IM-2 ''Athena'' mission with Micro-Nova ''Gracie'' and other rovers and payloads was launched on 27 February 2025, and a third Nova-C lander on the IM-3 mission is scheduled for no earlier than October 202 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lunar Water
The search for the presence of lunar water has attracted considerable attention and motivated several recent lunar missions, largely because of water's usefulness in making long-term lunar habitation feasible. The Moon is believed to be generally anhydrous after analysis of Apollo mission soil samples. It is understood that any water vapor on the surface would generally be decomposed by sunlight, leaving hydrogen and oxygen lost to outer space. However, subsequent robotic probes found evidence of water, especially of water ice in some permanently shadowed craters on the Moon; and in 2018 water ice was confirmed in multiple locations.Water and Ices on the Moon" ''science.nasa.gov'', fetched 11 June 2024 This water ice is not in the form of sheets of ice on the surface nor just under the surface, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Commercial Lunar Payload Services
Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) is a NASA program to hire companies to send small robotic landers and rovers to the Moon. Most landing sites are near the lunar south pole where they will scout for lunar resources, test in situ resource utilization (ISRU) concepts, and perform lunar science to support the Artemis lunar program. CLPS is intended to buy end-to-end payload services between Earth and the lunar surface using fixed-price contracts. The program achieved the first landing on the Moon by a commercial company in history with the IM-1 mission in 2024. The program was extended to add support for large payloads starting after 2025. The CLPS program is run by NASA's Science Mission Directorate along with the Human Exploration and Operations and Space Technology Mission directorates. NASA expects the contractors to provide all activities necessary to safely integrate, accommodate, transport, and operate NASA payloads, including launch vehicles, lunar lander spacecraft ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Astrobotic Technology
Astrobotic Technology, Inc., commonly referred to as Astrobotic, is an American private company that is developing space robotics technology for lunar and planetary missions. It was founded in 2007 by Carnegie Mellon professor Red Whittaker and his associates with the goal of winning the Google Lunar X Prize. The company is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Their first launch occurred on January 8, 2024, as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. The launch carried the company's ''Peregrine'' lunar lander on board the first flight of the Vulcan Centaur rocket from Florida's Space Force Station LC-41. The mission was unable to reach the Moon for a soft or hard landing. On June 11, 2020, Astrobotic received a second contract for the CLPS program. NASA would pay Astrobotic US$199.5 million to take the VIPER rover to the Moon, targeting a landing in November 2024. In July 2024, NASA announced that VIPER had been cancelled. History In 2007, the team de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mass Spectrometer
Mass spectrometry (MS) is an analytical technique that is used to measure the mass-to-charge ratio of ions. The results are presented as a '' mass spectrum'', a plot of intensity as a function of the mass-to-charge ratio. Mass spectrometry is used in many different fields and is applied to pure samples as well as complex mixtures. A mass spectrum is a type of plot of the ion signal as a function of the mass-to-charge ratio. These spectra are used to determine the elemental or isotopic signature of a sample, the masses of particles and of molecules, and to elucidate the chemical identity or structure of molecules and other chemical compounds. In a typical MS procedure, a sample, which may be solid, liquid, or gaseous, is ionized, for example by bombarding it with a beam of electrons. This may cause some of the sample's molecules to break up into positively charged fragments or simply become positively charged without fragmenting. These ions (fragments) are then separated accor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neutron Spectrometer
Neutron spectroscopy is a spectroscopic method of measuring atomic and magnetic motions by measuring the kinetic energy of emitted neutrons. The measured neutrons may be emitted directly (for example, by nuclear reactions), or they may scatter off cold matter before reaching the detector. Inelastic neutron scattering observes the change in the energy and wavevector of the neutron as it scatters from a sample. This can be used to probe a wide variety of different physical phenomena such as the motions of atoms (diffusional or hopping), the rotational modes of molecules, sound modes and molecular vibrations, recoil in quantum fluids, magnetic and quantum excitations or even electronic transitions. Since its discovery, neutron spectroscopy has become useful in medicine as it has been applied to radiation protection and radiation therapy. It is also used in nuclear fusion experiments, where the neutron spectrum can be used to infer the plasma temperature, density, and composition, in a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Permanently Shadowed Crater
A permanently shadowed crater is a depression on a body in the Solar System within which lies a point that is always in darkness. As of 2019, there are 324 known permanently shadowed regions on the Moon. Such regions also exist on Mercury and Ceres. Location Such a crater must be located at high latitude (close to a pole) and be on a body with very small axial tilt. The Moon has an axial tilt of about 1.5°; Mercury, 0.03°;Planetary Fact Sheets at http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov and Ceres, about 4°. On the Moon, permanent shadow can exist at latitudes as low as 58°; approximately 50 permanently shadowed regions exist in the 58°- 65° latitude range for both lunar hemispheres. The cumulative area of permanently shadowed lunar regions is about 31 thousand km2; more than h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lunar Landing
A Moon landing or lunar landing is the arrival of a spacecraft on the surface of the Moon, including both crewed and robotic missions. The first human-made object to touch the Moon was Luna 2 in 1959. In 1969 Apollo 11 was the first crewed mission to land on the Moon. There were List of Apollo missions#Crewed missions, six crewed landings between 1969 and 1972, and numerous uncrewed landings. All crewed missions to the Moon were conducted by the Apollo program, with the last departing the lunar surface in December 1972. After Luna 24 in 1976 there were no Soft landing (aeronautics), soft landings on the Moon until Chang'e 3 in 2013. All soft landings took place on the near side of the Moon until January 2019, when Chang'e 4 made the first landing on the far side of the Moon. Uncrewed landings Government landings Six government space agencies, Interkosmos, NASA, China National Space Administration, CNSA, Department of Space, DOS, JAXA and European Space Agency, ESA, ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peregrine Mission One
''Peregrine'' Lunar Lander flight 01, commonly referred to as Peregrine Mission One, was a failed American lunar lander mission. The lander, dubbed ''Peregrine'', was built by Astrobotic Technology and carried payloads for the NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. Peregrine Mission One launched on 8 January 2024, at 2:18 am EST, on the maiden flight of the Vulcan Centaur (Vulcan) rocket. The goal was to land the first U.S.-built lunar lander on the Moon since the crewed Apollo Lunar Module on Apollo 17 in 1972. The lander carried multiple payloads, with a payload capacity of 90 kg. Shortly after the lander separated from the Vulcan rocket in lunar injection orbit, a propellant leak developed that prevented the lander from completing its mission. After six days in orbit, the spacecraft was redirected into Earth's atmosphere, where it burned up over the Pacific Ocean on 18 January 2024. History In July 2017, Astrobotic announced an agreement with United La ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blue Ghost Mission 1
Blue Ghost Mission 1 was a robotic Moon landing mission by Firefly Aerospace that launched on January 15, 2025, and successfully Soft landing, soft-landed on the lunar surface on March 2, 2025, at 08:34Coordinated Universal Time, UTC. With this achievement, Firefly Aerospace became the first commercial company to complete a fully successful soft landing on the Moon (In February 2024, Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 became the first commercial mission to successfully soft-land on the Moon but the lander tipped to an unplanned 30 degree angle after touchdown). As part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, the mission delivered ten scientific and technological experiments to advance future human exploration under the Artemis program. Approximately 5 hours after sunset at the end of the lunar day on March 16, 2025, the solar-powered lander's batteries depleted, communications were lost, and end of the spacecraft's mission was officially declared at 23:25 UTC. The Fir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
