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Moon 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] |
Luna 9
Luna 9 (Луна-9), internal designation Ye-6 No.13, was an uncrewed space mission of the Soviet Union's Luna programme. On 3 February 1966, the Luna 9 spacecraft became the first spacecraft to achieve a soft landing on the Moon and return imagery from its surface. Spacecraft The spacecraft and lander capsule, combined, weighed and was 2.7 meters tall. It commenced the main descent, and shortly before its Impactor (spacecraft), controlled impact ejected the lander capsule. The lander had a mass of and consisted of a spheroid ''Automatic Lunar Station'' (ALS) capsule measuring . It used a Airbag#Spacecraft airbag landing systems, landing bag to survive the impact speed of over . It was a hermetic seal, hermetically sealed container with radio equipment, a program timing device, heat control systems, scientific apparatus, power sources, and a television system. The spacecraft was developed in the design bureau then known as OKB-1, under Chief Designer Sergei Korolev (who had d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Luna 23
''Luna 23'' was an uncrewed space mission of the Luna program developed by the Soviet Union. Overview ''Luna 23'' was a Soviet Moon lander mission which was intended to return a lunar sample to Earth. Launched to the Moon by a Proton-K/ D, the spacecraft tipped over on its side and was damaged upon landing in Mare Crisium. The sample collecting apparatus could not operate and no samples were returned. The lander continued transmissions for three days after landing. In 1976, '' Luna 24'' landed several hundred meters away and successfully returned samples. The asteroid-like object 2010 KQ is believed to be a rocket that parted the ''Luna 23'' module after launch. ''Luna 23'' was the first modified lunar sample return spacecraft, designed to return a deep core sample of the Moon's surface (hence the change in index from Ye-8-5 to Ye-8-5M). While '' Luna 16'' and '' Luna 20'' had returned samples from a depth of 0.3 meters, the new spacecraft was designed to dig to 2.5 meters. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Luna Program
The Luna programme (from the Russian word " Luna" meaning "Moon"), occasionally called ''Lunik'' by western media, was a series of robotic spacecraft missions sent to the Moon by the Soviet Union between 1959 and 1976. The programme accomplished many firsts in space exploration, including first flyby of the Moon, first impact of the Moon and first photos of the far side of the Moon. Each mission was designed as either an orbiter or lander. They also performed many experiments, studying the Moon's chemical composition, gravity, temperature, and radiation. Twenty-four spacecraft were formally given the Luna designation, although more were launched. Those that failed to reach orbit were not publicly acknowledged at the time, and not assigned a Luna number. Those that failed in low Earth orbit were usually given Cosmos designations. The estimated cost of the Luna programme in 1964 was US$6–10 billion (equivalent to US$– billion in ). The Luna 25 mission also continues ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar day) that is synchronized to its orbital period (Lunar month#Synodic month, lunar month) of 29.5 Earth days. This is the product of Earth's gravitation having tidal forces, tidally pulled on the Moon until one part of it stopped rotating away from the near side of the Moon, near side, making always the same lunar surface face Earth. Conversley, the gravitational pull of the Moon, on Earth, is the main driver of Earth's tides. In geophysical definition of planet, geophysical terms, the Moon is a planetary-mass object or satellite planet. Its mass is 1.2% that of the Earth, and its diameter is , roughly one-quarter of Earth's (about as wide as the contiguous United States). Within the Solar System, it is the List of Solar System objects by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soft Landing (rocketry)
A soft landing is any type of aircraft, rocket or spacecraft landing that does not result in significant damage to or destruction of the vehicle or its payload, as opposed to a hard landing. The average vertical speed in a soft landing should be about per second or less. A soft landing can be achieved by * Parachute—often this is into water. * Vertical rocket power using retrorockets, often referred to as VTVL (vertical landing referred to as VTOL, is usually for aircraft landing in a level attitude, rather than rockets) — first achieved on a suborbital trajectory by Bell Rocket Belt and on an orbital trajectory by the Surveyor 1. * Horizontal landing, most aircraft and some spacecraft, such as the Space Shuttle, land this way accompanied with a parachute. * Being caught in midair, as done with Corona spy satellites and followed by some other form of landing Landing is the last part of a flight, where a flying animal, aircraft, or spacecraft returns to the g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
IM-2
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 00:16:30 UTC. 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 ... [...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] |
Chang'e 6
Chang'e 6 () was the sixth robotic lunar exploration mission by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) and the second CNSA lunar sample-return mission. Like its predecessors in the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, the spacecraft is named after the Chinese moon goddess Chang'e. It was the first lunar mission to retrieve samples from the far side of the Moon; all previous samples were collected from the near side. The mission began on 3 May 2024 when the spacecraft was launched from Wenchang Space Launch Site on Hainan Island. Its lander and rover touched down on the lunar far side on 1 June 2024. The lander's robotic scoop and drill took samples with a total mass of 1935.3 grams from the lunar surface; the ascender module then carried these into lunar orbit on 3 June 2024. The ascender docked with the orbiter module in lunar orbit on 6 June 2024 and transferred the samples to an atmospheric re-entry module which then returned to Earth. The mission's lander and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
IM-1
IM-1 was a robotic Moon landing mission conducted by Intuitive Machines (IM) in February 2024 using a Intuitive Machines Nova-C, Nova-C lunar lander. After contact with the lunar surface on February 22 the lander tipped to an unplanned 30 degree angle. All instrument payloads remained functional and the mission was deemed a success. IM-1 was the first commercial mission to successfully soft-land on the Moon. NASA provided funding support for the mission through the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. The lander, named ''Odysseus'', carried six NASA-developed payloads and several others from commercial and educational customers. On February 29, ''Odysseus'' lost power and shut down with the start of the lunar night. IM-1 was the first soft lunar landing by a Private spaceflight, private company and ''Odysseus'' was the first American-made spacecraft to soft-land on the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. Steve Altemus, CEO of IM, says Nova-C is the first spacecraft to use liq ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Smart Lander For Investigating Moon
Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM), dubbed "Moon Sniper", was a lunar lander mission of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The lander's initial launch date in 2021 was postponed until 2023 due to delays in its rideshare, the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM). On 6 September 2023 at 23:42 UTC, XRISM launched, and SLIM separated from it later that day. On 1 October 2023, SLIM executed its trans-lunar orbit injection burns. The lander entered lunar orbit on 25 December 2023 and landed on 19 January 2024 at 15:20 UTC, making Japan the fifth country to soft-land a spacecraft on the Moon. News reports of technical difficulties made it to Earth, saying that the lander's solar panels were not oriented to the Sun; however, on 29 January, the lander became operational after conditions shifted. It has survived three lunar nights, awakening again in April. SLIM's operation on the Moon was terminated at 22:40 on August 23, 2024 (JST). SLIM, having surviv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chandrayaan 3
Chandrayaan-3 ( ) is the third mission in the Chandrayaan programme, a series of lunar-exploration missions developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The mission consists of a ''Vikram'' lunar lander and a ''Pragyan'' lunar rover, as replacements for the equivalents on Chandrayaan-2, which had crashed on landing in 2019. The spacecraft was launched on July 14, 2023, at 14:35 IST from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota, India. It entered lunar orbit on 5 August, and touched down near the lunar south pole, at 69°S, on 23 August 2023 at 18:04 IST (12:33 UTC). With this landing, ISRO became the fourth national space agency to successfully land on the Moon, after the Soviet space program, NASA and CNSA. The lander was not built to withstand the cold temperatures of the lunar night, so it was shut down at sunset over the landing site, twelve days after landing. The orbiting propulsion module remained operational and was repurposed for scien ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chang'e 5
Chang'e 5 () was the fifth lunar exploration mission in the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program of CNSA, and China's first lunar sample-return mission. Like its predecessors, the spacecraft is named after the Chinese moon goddess, Chang'e. It launched at 20:30 UTC on 23 November 2020, from Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on Hainan Island, landed on the Moon on 1 December 2020, collected ~ of lunar samples (including from a core ~1 m deep), and returned to the Earth at 17:59 UTC on 16 December 2020. Chang'e 5 was the first lunar sample-return mission since the Soviet Union's Luna 24 in 1976. New lunar minerals, including Changesite-(Y) and two different structures of the titanium compound Ti2O, were identified from the samples returned from the mission, making China the third country to discover a new lunar mineral. The mission also made China the third country to return samples from the Moon after the United States and the Soviet Union. Overview The Chinese Lunar Expl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
