Latest news with #lunarlander
The Independent
13 hours ago
- Science
- The Independent
Private Japanese lunar lander heads toward a touchdown in the moon's far north
A private lunar lander from Japan is closing in on the moon, aiming for a touchdown in the unexplored far north with a mini rover. The moon landing attempt by Tokyo-based company ispace on Friday Japan time is the latest entry in the rapidly expanding commercial lunar rush. The encore comes two years after the company's first moonshot ended in a crash landing, giving rise to the name Resilience for its successor lander. Resilience holds a rover with a shovel to gather lunar dirt as well as a Swedish artist's toy-size red house that will be lowered onto the moon's dusty surface. Long the province of governments, the moon became a target of private outfits in 2019, with more flops than wins along the way. Launched in January from Florida on a long, roundabout journey, Resilience entered lunar orbit last month. It shared a SpaceX ride with Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost, which reached the moon faster and became the first private entity to successfully land there in March. Another U.S. company, Intuitive Machines, arrived at the moon a few days after Firefly. But the tall, spindly lander face-planted in a crater near the moon's south pole and was declared dead within hours. Resilience is targeting the top of the moon, a less forbidding place than the shadowy bottom. The ispace team chose a flat area with few boulders in Mare Frigoris or Sea of Cold, a long and narrow region full of craters and ancient lava flows that stretches across the near side's northern tier. Once settled with power and communication flowing, the 7.5-foot (2.3-meter) Resilience will lower the piggybacking rover onto the lunar surface. Made of carbon fiber-reinforced plastic with four wheels, ispace's European-built rover — named Tenacious — sports a high-definition camera to scout out the area and a shovel to scoop up some lunar dirt for NASA. The rover, weighing just 11 pounds (5 kilograms), will stick close to the lander, going in circles at a speed of less than one inch (a couple centimeters) per second. Besides science and tech experiments, there's an artistic touch. The rover holds a tiny, Swedish-style red cottage with white trim and a green door, dubbed the Moonhouse by creator Mikael Genberg, for placement on the lunar surface. Takeshi Hakamada, CEO and founder of ispace, considers the latest moonshot 'merely a steppingstone,' with its next, much bigger lander launching by 2027 with NASA involvement, and even more to follow. 'We're not trying to corner the market. We're trying to build the market,' Jeremy Fix, chief engineer for ispace's U.S. subsidiary, said at a conference last month. 'It's a huge market, a huge potential." Fix noted that ispace, like other businesses, does not have 'infinite funds' and cannot afford repeated failures. While not divulging the cost of the current mission, company officials said it's less than the first one which exceeded $100 million. Two other U.S. companies are aiming for moon landings by year's end: Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Astrobotic Technology. Astrobotic's first lunar lander missed the moon altogether in 2024 and came crashing back through Earth's atmosphere. For decades, governments competed to get to the moon. Only five countries have pulled off successful robotic lunar landings: Russia, the U.S., China, India and Japan. Of those, only the U.S. has landed people on the moon: 12 NASA astronauts from 1969 through 1972. NASA expects to send four astronauts around the moon next year. That would be followed a year or more later by the first lunar landing by a crew in more than a half-century, with SpaceX's Starship providing the lift from lunar orbit all the way down to the surface. China also has moon landing plans for its own astronauts by 2030. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Associated Press
13 hours ago
- Science
- Associated Press
Private Japanese lunar lander heads toward a touchdown in the moon's far north
A private lunar lander from Japan is closing in on the moon, aiming for a touchdown in the unexplored far north with a mini rover. The moon landing attempt by Tokyo-based company ispace on Friday Japan time is the latest entry in the rapidly expanding commercial lunar rush. The encore comes two years after the company's first moonshot ended in a crash landing, giving rise to the name Resilience for its successor lander. Resilience holds a rover with a shovel to gather lunar dirt as well as a Swedish artist's toy-size red house that will be lowered onto the moon's dusty surface. Long the province of governments, the moon became a target of private outfits in 2019, with more flops than wins along the way. Launched in January from Florida on a long, roundabout journey, Resilience entered lunar orbit last month. It shared a SpaceX ride with Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost, which reached the moon faster and became the first private entity to successfully land there in March. Another U.S. company, Intuitive Machines, arrived at the moon a few days after Firefly. But the tall, spindly lander face-planted in a crater near the moon's south pole and was declared dead within hours. Resilience is targeting the top of the moon, a less forbidding place than the shadowy bottom. The ispace team chose a flat area with few boulders in Mare Frigoris or Sea of Cold, a long and narrow region full of craters and ancient lava flows that stretches across the near side's northern tier. Once settled with power and communication flowing, the 7.5-foot (2.3-meter) Resilience will lower the piggybacking rover onto the lunar surface. Made of carbon fiber-reinforced plastic with four wheels, ispace's European-built rover — named Tenacious — sports a high-definition camera to scout out the area and a shovel to scoop up some lunar dirt for NASA. The rover, weighing just 11 pounds (5 kilograms), will stick close to the lander, going in circles at a speed of less than one inch (a couple centimeters) per second. Besides science and tech experiments, there's an artistic touch. The rover holds a tiny, Swedish-style red cottage with white trim and a green door, dubbed the Moonhouse by creator Mikael Genberg, for placement on the lunar surface. Takeshi Hakamada, CEO and founder of ispace, considers the latest moonshot 'merely a steppingstone,' with its next, much bigger lander launching by 2027 with NASA involvement, and even more to follow. 'We're not trying to corner the market. We're trying to build the market,' Jeremy Fix, chief engineer for ispace's U.S. subsidiary, said at a conference last month. 'It's a huge market, a huge potential.' Fix noted that ispace, like other businesses, does not have 'infinite funds' and cannot afford repeated failures. While not divulging the cost of the current mission, company officials said it's less than the first one which exceeded $100 million. Two other U.S. companies are aiming for moon landings by year's end: Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Astrobotic Technology. Astrobotic's first lunar lander missed the moon altogether in 2024 and came crashing back through Earth's atmosphere. For decades, governments competed to get to the moon. Only five countries have pulled off successful robotic lunar landings: Russia, the U.S., China, India and Japan. Of those, only the U.S. has landed people on the moon: 12 NASA astronauts from 1969 through 1972. NASA expects to send four astronauts around the moon next year. That would be followed a year or more later by the first lunar landing by a crew in more than a half-century, with SpaceX's Starship providing the lift from lunar orbit all the way down to the surface. China also has moon landing plans for its own astronauts by 2030. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Irish Times
29-05-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
Europe's moonshot: Argonaut and the Irish engineer leading the way
In the seaside town of Noordwijk in the Netherlands , engineers at the European Space Agency's (ESA) European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) are hard at work addressing challenges never encountered before. Among them is Cork-born Dr Neil Murray, now lead engineer on the ESA's ambitious lunar lander project, Argonaut. Quietly and methodically, Europe is preparing to land on the moon, not as a partner, but on its own terms. For decades, the ESA has collaborated closely with Nasa , Canadian Space Agency (CSA), Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) and others, contributing the Columbus module to the International Space Station , robotic arms and science instruments for missions across the Solar System. But with Argonaut, the ESA is stepping out independently with a bold goal: to deliver infrastructure, science and eventually supplies for astronauts to the surface of the moon. 'It's the first time Europe is going to safely land on the lunar surface,' Murray says. 'We have so many problems which is frustrating and beautiful at the same time.' READ MORE Argonaut is the ESA's new lunar cargo lander, a robotic spacecraft designed to deliver up to 1,500kg of cargo to the moon's surface. It will support missions to the lunar South Pole, a region of intense scientific and strategic interest, particularly for future human habitation. Capable of surviving the punishing lunar night – 14 days of darkness with temperatures plunging to minus 150 degrees – Argonaut is engineered to last up to five years on the moon. The spacecraft is composed of three main components: the Lunar Descent Element (LDE), which guides the lander safely to the surface; the cargo platform, acting as a foundation; and the mission payload, which includes rovers, life-support resources, scientific equipment and communications infrastructure. Standing six metres high and 4.5m in diameter, Argonaut is, as Murray says, 'a big spacecraft'. It is also Europe's first attempt at delivering something of this scale to another world. 'We're bringing 1,500 kilograms of passenger to the lunar surface. We like to refer to the payload element of Argonaut as the 'passenger', because it has so many elements to it.' The first full mission in the programme, known as ArgoNET, is planned to launch in late 2031. It will deploy 'NET' infrastructure – navigation, energy, and telecommunications – to help make the moon a more accessible, navigable place. Acting as a kind of lunar beacon, ArgoNET will improve lunar navigation serving as a reference point for essential selenodetic measurements to accurately measure the moon's surface and varying gravitational fields. The Argonaut mission is not just a technical challenge, it's also a statement of independence. 'It's important that we are autonomous,' Murray says. 'If we can't do things on our own, then we're always reliant on others. But it's also important that we can bring something unique to the table when we do co-operate.' The emphasis on European capability is everywhere in the project. The launcher for the mission is Ariane 6, built by the ESA in collaboration with European providers, Arianespace. The LDE is built primarily by Thales Alenia, also European. And the mission design, funding, and leadership are all European. 'Argonaut is important, and all these other things that the ESA provide, especially Earth observation means that we are contributing to the global space community. That's unique to us, and that allows us to add value.' The ESA is also leading the way in sustainable space, Murray explains. 'As part of our engineering process, we design beyond the short-term and instead include a sustainable end of life for our missions. That's good for everybody and good for the future.' 'Argonaut is part of ESA's vision for sustainable lunar exploration,' he adds, 'not just getting there, but staying there'. A mock-up of the Argonaut works facility built at LUNA Europe. Photograph: European Space Agency A replica of Argonaut stands proudly in LUNA, the ESA's state-of-the-art new lunar analogue facility at its European Astronaut Centre (EAC) in Cologne, Germany. The Spaceship EAC science research teams there are studying the moon's soil, searching for water ice, and preparing for future missions using lunar resources. Much like for Dr Aidan Cowley, materials scientist and ESA research officer at LUNA, it will be a proud moment on the day of touchdown. 'That will be amazing,' Murray adds. 'There will definitely be a piece of Ireland on the moon when Argonaut succeeds. We are well represented in this mission.' Murray's own journey to the moon is rooted in curiosity rather than certainty. 'When I was 16 or 17, I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do,' he recalls. 'Not a clue. And I don't know how kids do it now either. You can always change.' He chose mechanical engineering at Munster Technological University (then Cork Institute of Technology), drawn by an interest in maths, physics and fixing things. 'Someone said, with mechanical engineering, you can do a bit of everything and then specialise later.' That open-minded approach served him well. A year of work experience confirmed he wasn't drawn to industry straight away, and instead he set his sights on further study. He was accepted by both Oxford University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and chose MIT. 'People said I'd struggle like hell,' Murray says with a laugh. 'But actually, I didn't. The education I got in Cork was more than enough.' After MIT came a PhD at Imperial College London, where he found himself working in a supersonic wind tunnel, 'a Mach nine tunnel right in the centre of London', Murray beams. From there, a career at the ESA unfolded, eventually leading him to the Argonaut programme in 2023. Ask Murray about the highlight of working on Argonaut, and he can't pick one. 'Every day is different. Every day is a highlight. I love the team, and I love the problems. When something is really like: 'This is never going to work', and then it works. That's the best feeling.' Landing on the moon is notoriously difficult with failures more often than successful outcomes. Why? It's a challenge to remotely control a precision landing on the moon using complex guidance systems and varying lunar gravitational fields. 'Space technology is all cutting-edge and done on a tight budget,' Murray adds. 'People think the budgets are huge, but they're not. Compared to the real world, it's small. So we have to do very difficult things, in a very short time, with very little money.' That challenge is part of the appeal. 'If it was easy, we wouldn't be here,' he says. 'We chose to be here, because it's hard.' One of the most compelling aspects of Argonaut is its future role. Beyond the first mission in 2031, the ESA hopes to launch regular cargo runs to the moon throughout the 2030s. These could deliver scientific experiments, solar power units, rovers, or even the water, food and air needed by astronauts. The lander itself is designed to remain on the moon for up to five years, serving as a platform for new missions or as a reminder of Europe's first step toward a permanent lunar presence. 'This lander could one day be something we visit, something we point to and say: 'That was the first one. That was ours.'' For young people looking toward careers in the space sector, Murray offers this advice: don't get bogged down in whether it's 'possible'. 'I never thought about whether it was possible or not. I just thought about what I wanted to do, and just went for it.' He credits his success not just to technical skills, but to mindset. 'I like puzzles. I like maths. I have a good imagination for problem solving, and I don't get stressed by problems. I enjoy them.' More than a single mission, Argonaut represents a turning point, a moment when Europe shifts from participant to pioneer. With engineers like Murray at the helm, it's clear that the ESA isn't just thinking about the moon, it's thinking about what happens after we get there. 'Everything we do is for everybody and for the future,' he adds. 'We're thinking about clean space, debris, sustainability. It's not just about getting to the moon. It's about doing it in a way that makes sense for the future.' In the years ahead, Argonaut may quietly become one of the most important spacecraft of our time: a steady, sustainable bridge between Earth and the moon, built in Europe, for the world – and Ireland.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Private spacecraft circling moon snaps photo with strange optical illusion
A Japanese commercial spacecraft has sent home another close-up image of the moon, its intended landing destination in a matter of days, but this picture can play tricks on the eyes. Tokyo company ispace released a fresh photo from its lunar lander Resilience as it orbits the moon. The snapshot reveals the rugged landscape of the lunar south pole, a highly sought region by NASA and other spacefaring competitors because of its ice within permanently shadowed craters. That ice could be a valuable commodity for future space voyages if it can be converted into rocket fuel, oxygen, and drinking water. But some viewers may not see the pictured craters denting the surface as they are. "This image presents an optical illusion to some," the company said in a post on X. "Although the image is filled with concave craters, from this orientation they may look like they are convex to the eye." SEE ALSO: NASA astronauts are proud bedwetters. They even practice. Engineers for ispace load the Resilience lunar lander into a transport container before shipping it to Cape Canaveral, Florida. Credit: ispace Make no mistake: Those are hollowed out dips, not bumps. The reason they may appear as the latter, though, is a relief inversion phenomenon — a common problem when interpreting spacecraft photography. Astronomers have even coined names for it, calling it the "crater illusion" or "crater-dome illusion." "Upon first glance, it is difficult to tell if ground is rising up, sinking down, or a mix of both," according to the European Space Agency. The optical illusion occurs because people are used to interpreting shadows as coming from an overhead light source. But that's not necessarily the orientation of spacecraft. In many satellite photos, the light source is almost horizontal to the surface. That makes it easy for the patterns of light and shade to fool our brains. Where sunlight illuminates south-facing slopes and leaves northern slopes in shadow, for instance, many viewers experience the issue, according to NASA's Earth Observatory. For that reason, astronomers often orient satellite images so that north is up. Four months after Resilience's mid-January launch, it reached the moon and has flown laps around it since in preparation for ispace's second attempt at a lunar landing. The company's first try two years ago failed when its spacecraft ran out of fuel and crashed on the moon. The new mission, dubbed Hakuto-R, is gearing up for a touchdown near the center of Mare Frigoris at 3:24 p.m. ET on June 5. (It will be June 6 in Japan.) Livestream coverage will begin about one hour earlier, at 2:15 p.m. ET, with English translation. If the Hakuto-R mission aces the landing, it will spend two weeks running experiments on the lunar surface before powering down for the brutally cold lunar night. Credit: ispace infographic Landing on the moon remains onerous — demonstrated by numerous flopped landings. Though Firefly Aerospace succeeded in landing in March, another U.S. company, Intuitive Machines, didn't fare as well, ending up on its side in a crater less than a week later. The difficulty arises from the moon's exosphere, which provides virtually no drag to slow a spacecraft down as it approaches the ground. What's more, there are no GPS systems on the moon to help guide a craft to its landing spot. Engineers have to compensate for those challenges from 239,000 miles away. Whether ispace is better positioned for success this time remains to be seen. For now, flight controllers are enjoying the spacecraft's scenery. And for those who are having trouble appreciating the moon's southern craters in the new image, ispace has a tip. "Flip the image," the company said, "or tilt your head to change your perspective!"
Gizmodo
15-05-2025
- Science
- Gizmodo
Intuitive Machines Reveals Why Its Moon Lander Faceplanted Into a Crater
Earlier this year, an ill-fated lander skidded across the lunar surface and ended up lying sideways in a cold, dark crater. Intuitive Machines' Athena lander was declared dead on arrival at the Moon. Now, the company has released a report detailing the chain of mishaps that led to its demise. Athena touched down on the Moon on Thursday, March 6, following a week-long journey through space. After a less-than-ideal touchdown, the lunar lander ended up on its side in a shallow crater in the Moon's Mons Mouton region, 820 feet (250 meters) from its targeted landing site. During an earnings call on Wednesday, Intuitive Machines listed three factors that affected Athena's ability to land on the Moon, SpaceNews reported. The first issue had to do with the lander's laser altimeters, instruments designed to help it estimate its distance from the Moon during descent. 'In the final phase of descent, we saw signal noise and distortion that did not allow for accurate altitude readings,' Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus said during the call. The Houston-based company also blamed conditions at the Moon's south polar region. According to Altemus, the sunlight's low angles and the topography 'created long shadows and dim lighting conditions that challenged the precision capability of our landing system.' The third factor that resulted in Athena's lunar tumble was the lander's inability to recognize craters on the Moon from lower altitudes. Intuitive Machines relied on photos captured by NASA's Lunar Reconnoissance Orbiter to guide the lander's optical navigation system during its descent. Those images, however, are captured at an altitude of 62 miles (100 kilometers) and therefore 'could not accurately account for how craters appear at lower altitudes with south pole lighting conditions as you approach the landing site,' Altemus said. The company is treating Athena's failed mission as a set of lessons learned as it prepares to launch its third lander sometime next year. 'We've added dissimilar and redundant altimeters to the sensor suite, and they're going through more rigorous and extreme flight-like testing than we've done before,' Altemus said in Tuesday's call, according to 'We've incorporated an additional lighting-independent sensor for surface velocity measurements. We've expanded onboard terrain crater database for enhanced navigation across the surface of the moon.' Intuitive Machines launched its first lunar lander, Odysseus, in February 2024. It reached the lunar surface, but the landing wasn't exactly smooth. One of the lander's legs may have gotten caught during its descent, causing it to tip onto its side and end up lying sideways on a rock. The mission did operate for seven days on the lunar surface, making Intuitive Machines the first company to land a private lander on the Moon. 'Moving forward, we will succeed,' Altemus said. 'Land softly, land upright, land ready to operate.'
