Moon Exploration and Science News

May 24, 2015

China Plans First Ever Landing On The Lunar Far Side
Moscow (Sputnik) May 22, 2015
What lies on the "dark side" of the moon? The ruined civilization of our lunar forbearers? A pile of overplayed Pink Floyd records? The most exclusive Airbnb in the galaxy? China's on the case, launching the first expedition of its kind, a journey to the moon's far side. The closest extraterrestrial body, the moon has done much to shape our history and mythologies. It's been associated with Artemis and Greek conceptions of rebirth. It's also connected with Chang'e, the Chinese goddess of the ... read more

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The Moon or Mars: Flawed Debate, False Choice - Part Two New technologies allow us to go back to the Moon at a fraction the cost of Apollo, and now, even private efforts like the Google X Prize contestants are underway to land and execute exploration miss ... more		NASA Seeks Additional Information for Asteroid Redirect Mission Spacecraft NASA has issued a Request for Information (RFI) seeking ideas from American companies for a spacecraft design that could be used for both the agency's Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) and a robotic s ... more		The Moon or Mars: Flawed Debate, False Choice - Part One The Moon or Mars debate continues despite every single report or recommendation from NASA, NRC or other independent study that point to the Moon as the next logical destination for human space explo ... more
				Ether Compounds Could Work like DNA On Oily Worlds In the search for life beyond Earth, scientists have justifiably focused on water because all biology as we know it requires this fluid. A wild card, however, is whether alternative liquids can also ... more		Asteroid Distant 'Flyby' Thursday An asteroid, designated 1999 FN53, will safely pass more than 26 times the distance of Earth to the moon on May 14. To put it another way, at its closest point, the asteroid will get no closer than ... more

The World's Largest Commercial Drone Conference and Expo - Sept 9 - Las Vegas

Next Generation Integrated ISR 2015 - Washington DC - July 27-29

Engineers Test Hydrogen Burn-off Igniters for Space Launch System NASA has a certain "flare" when it comes to safety on the launch pad. Those flares are called hydrogen burn-off igniters - which resemble celebratory sparklers - and were successfully used to mitiga ... more		Europa's Mystery Dark Material Could Be Sea Salt NASA laboratory experiments suggest the dark material coating some geological features of Jupiter's moon Europa is likely sea salt from a subsurface ocean, discolored by exposure to radiation. The p ... more		Greenland truce or Trump win? Davos "framework" pauses tariffs but not the takeover boasts Greenlanders doubtful over Trump resolution EU says ready to sign defence and security pact with India		NASA's New Horizons Spots Pluto's Faintest Known Moons It's a complete Pluto family photo - or at least a photo of the family members we've already met. For the first time, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has photographed Kerberos and Styx - the sm ... more
				Weather forecasts for planets beyond our solar system "Cloudy for the morning, turning to clear with scorching heat in the afternoon." While this might describe a typical late-summer day in many places on Earth, it may also apply to planets outside our ... more		NASA's LRO Moves Closer to the Lunar Surface NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has completed a maneuver that lowered the spacecraft's orbit to within 20 kilometers (12 miles) above areas near the lunar South Pole, the closest the space ... more

Army Network Modernization 2015 - Washington DC June 23-25

Saturn Moon's Activity Could Be 'Curtain Eruptions' New research using data from NASA's Cassini mission suggests most of the eruptions from Saturn's moon Enceladus might be diffuse curtains rather than discrete jets. Many features that appear to be i ... more		Volcano Loki observed from Earth With the first detailed observations of a lava lake on a moon of Jupiter, the Large Binocular Telescope Observatory in Arizona places itself as the forerunner of the next generation of Extremely Lar ... more		Trump vows to relaunch Egypt-Ethiopia talks on dam row China's birth rate falls to lowest on record Chile police arrest suspect over deadly wildfires		Geochemical process on Saturn's moon linked to life's origin New work from a team including Carnegie's Christopher Glein has revealed the pH of water spewing from a geyser-like plume on Saturn's moon Enceladus. Their findings are an important step toward dete ... more
European Space Agency Director Wants to Set Up a Moon Base The successor to the International Space Station (ISS) should be a permanent moon base, says incoming European Agency Space leader Johann-Dietrich Worner. The Space Foundation's National Space ... more		Russia Invites China to Join in Creating Lunar Station Russia and China are currently in talks on inviting the latter to become one of the main partners in creating a lunar station, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said Tuesday. "The q ... more		Deep Space Atomic Clock On Time For 2016 Mission As the saying goes, timing is everything. More so in 21st-century space exploration where navigating spacecraft precisely to far-flung destinations - say, to Mars or even more distant Europa, a moon ... more		Japan to land first unmanned spacecraft on moon in 2018 Japan is planning to deliver its first lander on the surface of the moon in three years, local media reported on Sunday, citing sources with close knowledge of the project. Japan's Aerospace E ... more

	Dating the moon-forming impact event with meteorites Through a combination of data analysis and numerical modeling work, researchers have found a record of the ancient Moon-forming giant impact observable in stony meteorites. Their work will appear in ... more		Japan to land probe on the moon in 2018 Japan's space agency announced plans on Monday to send an unmanned lander probe to the moon by fiscal year 2018. The mission will be Japan's first attempt to visit the lunar surface. ... more

Quantum transport method reads open quantum states

Scientists uncover new quantum state that could power future technologies

Early universe dark matter born red hot before cooling

Japan planning moon mission: space agency		"Hubble" - One Word Says It All		Yutu finds Moon still active in old age		Russia to Launch National Orbital Station by 2023		Manned Moon Flight Planned For 2030
A new view of the moon's formation		Moon formed when young Earth and little sister collided		Europa's Elusive Water Plume Paints Grim Picture For Life		Will the moon's first inhabitants live in giant lava tubes?		New explanation for Mercury's dark surface

Soft Landing on the Moon an Extraordinary Challenge

Saturn Spacecraft Returns to the Realm of Icy Moons

Stop blaming the moon

Next Steps on Journey to Mars: Progress on Asteroid Initiative

Europa's Elusive Water Plume Paints Grim Picture For Life

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