Space mission to blast off to moon's south pole - with suitcase-sized 'hopper' on board
Two space mining missions are blasting off this week, with one heading to the southern-most point ever visited on the moon's surface.
A robotic moon lander called Athena will embark on Intuitive Machine's second mission to the moon.
It made history a year ago by becoming the first private company to successfully land on the moon's surface - although the lander did fall over.
Athena will be carrying a set of instruments and a drill to study the rocks and soil beneath the moon's surface and will help scientists identify where possible water sources could be.
After lift-off, currently scheduled for shortly after midnight on 27 February, Athena will aim to land on 6 March and then spend ten days gathering data.
There are also moon rovers aboard. One is a suitcase-sized hopper which will jump into a deep crater where scientists suspect there is ice and snap some images before jumping back out.
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Catching a lift with Athena before it breaks off on its own is Odin, a robotic spacecraft that will perform a flyby mission of an asteroid.
Odin's mission marks US company AstroForge's first attempt to hunt for platinum in space.
It should take just five days to reach the far side of the moon, but will then wait for another 300 days in deep space before approaching its target asteroid.
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It will then gather images of the asteroid in preparation for the company's next mission, Vestri, which will land on the asteroid and begin extraction.
The same rocket, a SpaceX Falcon-9, will also launch a NASA-developed moon-mapping satellite called Lunar Trailblazer.
The Lunar Trailblazer will orbit the moon detecting water on the surface.
According to NASA, it will help scientists "determine the form, abundance, and distribution of water across the lunar surface".
There's a race to find water on the moon because it may make it feasible to build a base there, making deep space exploration easier.
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Daily Mail
4 hours ago
- Daily Mail
DOGE nerds reveal their biggest fear after Musk and Trump's spectacular falling out
Employees of the Department of Government Efficiency are worried Elon Musk 's infamous chainsaw to government waste may come for them after his falling out with Donald Trump. Musk and Trump's fallout dates back to the man who once wore a t-shirt proclaiming himself 'the DOGEfather' leaving the White House in late May. The ex-'First Buddy' has spent the days since torching the relationship, everything from publicly slamming Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' to claiming the president is in The Epstein Files (which he quietly later deleted). Trump has also knifed a key Musk ally by pulling his nomination to become NASA administrator. That has many of those who remain at the Department of Government Efficiency worried that they may 'get DOGE'd' themselves, as group chats between employees have reportedly lit up wondering where their future in government lies. As former DOGE software engineer Sahil Lavingia said, he and many of the people attempting to streamline the government were already allies or employees of Musk. 'I worry with Elon gone, no one will join, and it will just slowly fade away,' Lavingia told the Wall Street Journal. Even if they remain, without Musk, the organization that claimed it has already cut $180 billion in government waste may never be the same. 'Working there felt like pushing a boulder up a mountain, and it'll just fall back down if the work doesn't continue,' Lavingia added. For now, the Trump White House remains proud of the department's work and looks for it to continue. 'Trump's success through DOGE is undisputed, and [the president's] work will continue to yield historic results,' spokesperson Harrison Fields said. However, sources told WSJ that many are worried that at the very least, DOGE will see massive staffing cuts without Musk's protection. 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'Go ahead, make my day …' In a follow-up post, Musk said he would 'begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately.' Trump continued his 'crazy' remarks on Friday when speaking with CNN Anchor and Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash. He said: 'I'm not even thinking about Elon. He's got a problem. The poor guy's got a problem.' The tech billionaire also claimed Trump appeared in files relating to disgraced pedophile Jeffrey Epstein in a post on his social media platform X as the pair traded blows in a sensational public row. Musk gave no evidence for the claim, which has since been deleted, and the White House dismissed the allegation.
The Guardian
a day ago
- The Guardian
Chris Hadfield: ‘Worst space chore? Fixing the toilet. It's even worse when it's weightless'
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Don't be so clumsy and look at the mess you made.' Instead, Rommel was like, 'Who cares? What I don't want Scott to think about next time he's got a great idea is, 'Oh, I gotta be careful I don't spill the commander's Coke.'' He should be excited about new ideas. And so, for me, it was a really great study of leadership. What song do you want played at your funeral? Danny Boy. It's a lovely reversal of how people normally look at death and who's grieving and why, and how you anticipate the grieving of death. It is an exquisitely and hauntingly beautiful song, and it's worth knowing the lyrics. Chris Hadfield's Journey to The Cosmos is touring Australia: Perth (27 June), Sydney (28 June), Brisbane (29 June), Melbourne (1 July) and Adelaide (3 July)
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Daily Mail
Dramatic move by Pentagon hint Trump could be siding with another billionaire amid Musk fallout
The Pentagon appears to be contemplating pivoting away from Elon Musk 's SpaceX following the almighty blowup between President Donald Trump and the world's richest man earlier this week. The fallout appears to be impacting the nation's space program as the Trump administration looks toward another billionaire to replace Musk in the race to Mars. Officials at NASA and the Pentagon quietly reached out to SpaceX's competitors, urging them to accelerate development of alternative rockets and spacecraft. Decisions appear to have been taken quickly after Musk made a defiant threat to pull SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft, a lifeline to the International Space Station, after Trump first threatened to cancel SpaceX's lucrative government contracts. 'It turned really terrifying,' one NASA official admitted to the Washington Post after initially finding the feud 'entertaining.' Although Musk eventually walked back his threat, the damage was done. Officials from NASA and the Pentagon, already uneasy with their reliance on SpaceX, were rattled to the core. SpaceX has become indispensable as it transports astronauts and cargo to the ISS, launches sensitive military satellites, and operates Starlink, the world's largest satellite constellation. The flare-up served to remind officials of the risks of tying national interests to a mercurial billionaire. 'When you realize that he's willing to shut everything down just on an impulse … that kind of behavior and the dependence on him is dangerous,' a former space agency official said. NASA insiders said Musk's threat 'crossed a line,' invoking memories of the 2018 episode when Musk smoked marijuana during a podcast interview, which prompted NASA to launch a safety investigation into SpaceX. The clash was also inflamed by the White House's decision to abruptly withdraw Jared Isaacman's nomination as NASA Administrator. Isaacman, closely aligned with Musk, had twice flown to space aboard SpaceX vehicles. In the aftermath, government officials reached out to Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin, RocketLab, and Stoke Space, querying when their rockets might be ready to shoulder critical missions. Fatih Ozmen, CEO of Sierra Space, which is developing the Dream Chaser spaceplane, confirmed that NASA was 'working closely' with his company stating, 'NASA mentioned to us that they want diversity and do not want to rely on a single provider.' For some insiders, it wasn't hard to connect the dots: Jeff Bezos, the founder of Blue Origin, has long been a rival to Musk. Now, with the Biden-era antagonism between Trump and Bezos thawing, some see a political recalibration. Bezos' Blue Origin has lagged behind SpaceX for years, but its New Glenn rocket is finally gaining traction, albeit slowly. The Pentagon's recent 'lanes' strategy to diversify launch providers now looks prescient, with officials seeking to avoid 'overreliance on any single provider or solution.' A source familiar with the Defense Department's strategy said the White House sees an opening to back Bezos as a counterweight to Musk's volatility. 'They want someone who's predictable,' the person said to The Post. Even Congress appeared to be spooked by the behavior. A key committee demanded updates on Boeing's long-delayed Starliner capsule, which has struggled to match the reliability of Musk's Dragon. NASA, under pressure, said Friday that Starliner's next mission could come 'early 2026,' though it remains unclear whether it will fly astronauts or cargo only. Indeed, just how reliant NASA were on SpaceX was illustrated last year when American astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were left on the International Space Station by Boeing's troubled Starliner capsule. 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Todd Harrison, a defense analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, likened Musk's social media post to 'an embargo of the space station.' 'Musk was saying he is going to cut NASA off from its own laboratory in space,' he added. Harrison also recalled Musk's refusal to activate Starlink Internet for a Ukrainian military strike in 2022, a decision that raised alarms about national defense being at the mercy of a single CEO. 'The nation's missile defenses could be held hostage to the twittering whims of Elon Musk,' Harrison warned. Former NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman, who worked at SpaceX, voiced the fears of many in the astronaut corps: 'When your hopes and dreams are tied up in this, you can't help but think, "Oh my goodness, am I going to fly in space?"' Meanwhile, Trump, who once championed Musk as a visionary, appears to be cooling. His allies note that the president has no tolerance for perceived disloyalty and Musk's defiance has not gone unnoticed. Some aides believe Trump's sharp pivot is personal as much as political. RocketLab's CEO Peter Beck had previously warned how Musk's acquisition of Twitter, now rebranded as X, and his flirtation with politics could backfire. 'It certainly makes people uncomfortable. At the end of the day, if you're delivering important national security missions, the buck stops with the CEO,' Beck said. Pentagon officials remain wary, not least because few companies have rockets certified for critical national security missions. Blue Origin's New Glenn has flown once, and United Launch Alliance's Vulcan only twice. RocketLab's Neutron has yet to launch at all. SpaceX's Falcon 9 still dominates, launching with near clockwork precision. But now, Trump's administration appears ready to gamble on fostering competition, even if it means leaning more heavily on Bezos. 'Sierra Space stands ready,' Ozmen declared. Others in the sector are similarly jockeying for position, sensing that Musk's once-unshakable grip may be loosening.
