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#artemis space mission
peppers-ghost-posts · 2 years
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I love that given the choice between a serious name and a bad joke submitted by the public, NASA always picks the funniest option
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nasa · 1 year
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Moon Mountain Named After Melba Roy Mouton, NASA Mathematician
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Award-winning NASA mathematician and computer programmer Melba Mouton is being honored with the naming of a mountain at the Moon’s South Pole. Mouton joined NASA in 1959, just a year after the space agency was established. She was the leader of a team that coded computer programs to calculate spacecraft trajectories and locations. Her contributions were instrumental to landing the first humans on the Moon.
She also led the group of "human computers," who tracked the Echo satellites. Roy and her team's computations helped produce the orbital element timetables by which millions could view the satellite from Earth as it passed overhead.
The towering lunar landmark now known as “Mons Mouton” stands at a height greater than 19,000 feet. The mountain was created over billions of years by lunar impacts. Huge craters lie around its base—some with cliff-like edges that descend into areas of permanent darkness. Mons Mouton is the future landing site of VIPER, our first robotic Moon rover. The rover will explore the Moon’s surface to help gain a better understanding of the origin of lunar water. Here are things to know:
Mons Mouton is a wide, relatively flat-topped mountain that stretches roughly 2,700 square miles
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The mountain is the highest spot at the Moon’s South Pole and can be seen from Earth with a telescope
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Our VIPER Moon rover will explore Mons Mouton over the course of its 100-day mission
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VIPER will map potential resources which will help inform future landing sites under our Artemis program
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The VIPER mission is managed by our Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. The approximately 1,000-pound rover will be delivered to the Moon by a commercial vendor as part of our Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, delivering science and technology payloads to and near the Moon.
Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!
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without-ado · 4 months
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The First Launch of Vulcan l John Kraus
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karlrincon · 1 year
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Reach for the Stars!🚀🌕
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8.8 million pounds thrust for RS-25 Engine
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Artemis jumping over the moon!
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©NASA
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katy-l-wood · 1 year
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If I had a nickle for every time the launch of the new moon mission was delayed by a hurricane, I'd have two nickles. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that's happened twice in about a month.
Is the rocket summoning the storms? Are the storms trying to stop the rocket? We just don't know.
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spacewonder19 · 1 year
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Successful Liftoff of NASA’s Artemis (Nov.16 © © © )
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roversrovers · 1 year
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does it ever drive you crazy
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just how fast the night changes
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mindblowingscience · 9 days
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The Lunar Environment Monitoring Station (LEMS) is one of the first three potential payloads NASA selected for the Artemis 3 mission, which will land humans on the moon in 2026 for the first time in more than 50 years. The compact, autonomous seismometer is designed to withstand the long, cold lunar night and operate during the day, continuously monitoring ground motion from moonquakes in the region around the lunar south pole, where Artemis 3 astronauts will land. LEMS is expected to operate on the lunar surface for at least three months and up to two years, demonstrating its capability to measure the moon's geophysical activity unassisted over long periods of time, according to a statement from NASA. 
Continue Reading.
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gotstabbedbyapen · 7 months
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This is how Apollo's mission to the moon went.
Apollo: Greetings, sister of mine. It is I, your dearest brother, who has been tasked to arrive on the moon and fulfill my topmost mission - annoying the fuck out of you. Artemis: Why are you like this?
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I'm still not over the Odysseus moon lander, and I don't think I ever will. I've always had a varying interest in space for as long as I can remember, and Greek Mythology has always had a special place in my heart. With both colliding in such a unique way, it tickles me pink.
But why did it have to be like this...
Odysseus is one of my favorite characters from the myths. The Odyssey brings me to tears every time I read it. It's a beautiful story of determination to return home again despite the possibility of rejection and how much has changed. It means so much to me that this story has gotten so much recognition in recent years, but why like this?
Why this lander? Why this lander when its only fate is to fizzle out and be forgotten? Why this lander that was sent away forever? Why this lander that will never return to its creators or home?
Why this lander that will die cold and alone?
From the interviews and reporting I've seen, the engineers and scientists were fond of the lander. They talk about it with affection. They gave it a nickname. "Odie" So I wonder... Did they know? Did they know what that name means? The name Autolychus gave to that squirming babe in his arms. His grandson. The name of the king who would achieve feats that will be sung for centuries, millennia. The name of the man whose return would be synonymous with a long journey. Do they know they named this first return to the moon in 50 years "hatred"? And do they realize that by leaving the lander to die, they fulfill the true meaning of that name?
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The United States has returned to the lunar surface for the first time in more than 50 years after a privately-built spacecraft named Odysseus capped a nail-biting 73-minute descent from orbit with a touchdown near the moon’s south pole.
Amid celebrations of what NASA hailed “a giant leap forward,” there was no immediate confirmation of the status or condition of the lander, other than it had reached its planned landing site at crater Malapert A.
But later Intuitive Machines, the Texas-based company that built the first commercial craft to land on the moon, said the craft was “upright and starting to send data.”
The statement on X said mission managers were “working to downlink the first images from the lunar surface.”
The so-called “soft landing” on Thursday, which Steve Altemus, the company’s founder, had given only an 80% chance of succeeding, was designed to open a new era of lunar exploration as NASA works towards a scheduled late-2026 mission to send humans back there.
“Welcome to the moon,” Altemus said when touchdown when the 5.23pm touchdown was eventually confirmed, after about 10 minutes in which Odysseus was out of contact.
It was the first time any US-built spacecraft had landed on the moon since NASA’s most recent crewed visit, the Apollo 17 mission in December 1972, and the first visit by commercial vehicle following last month’s failure of Peregrine One, another partnership between the space agency and a private company, Astrobotic.
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“Today, for the first time in more than a half century, the US has returned to the moon. Today, for the first time in the history of humanity, a commercial company, an American company, launched and led the voyage up there,” Bill Nelson, the NASA administrator, said.
“What a triumph. Odysseus has taken the moon. This feat is a giant leap forward for all of humanity.”
There was no video of Odysseus’s fully autonomous descent, which slowed to about 2.2mph at 33ft above the surface.
But a camera built by students at Florida’s Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University was designed to fall and take pictures immediately before touchdown, and NASA cameras were set to photograph the ground from the spacecraft.
The 14ft (4.3 metres) hexagonal, six-legged Nova-C lander, affectionately nicknamed Odie by Intuitive Machines employees, is part of NASA’s commercial lunar payload services (CLPS) initiative in which the agency awards contracts to private partners, largely to support the Artemis program.
NASA contributed $118m to get it off the ground, with Intuitive Machines funding a further $130m ahead of its February 15 launch from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on a Falcon 9 rocket from Elon Musk’s SpaceX company.
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The IM-1 mission, like the doomed Peregrine effort, is carrying a payload of scientific equipment designed to gather data about the lunar environment, specifically in the rocky region chosen as the landing site for NASA’s crewed Artemis III mission planned for two years’ time.
It is a hazardous area – “pockmarked with all of these craters,” according to Nelson – but chosen because it is believed to be rich in frozen water that could help sustain a permanent lunar base crucial to future human missions to Mars.
Scientists announced last year that they believed tiny glass beads strewn across the moon’s surface contained potentially “billions of tonnes of water” that could be extracted and used on future missions.
The risks are worth it, Nelson told CNN on Thursday, “to see if there is water in abundance. Because if there’s water, there’s rocket fuel: hydrogen, and oxygen. And we could have a gas station on the south pole of the moon.”
The planned operational life of the solar powered lander is only seven days, before the landing site about 186 miles from the moon’s south pole moves into Earth’s shadow.
But NASA hopes that will be long enough for analysis of how soil there reacted to the impact of the landing.
Other instruments will focus on space weather effects on the lunar surface, while a network of markers for communication and navigation will be deployed.
“Odysseus, powered by a company called Intuitive Machines, launched upon a SpaceX rocket, carrying a bounty of NASA scientific instruments, is bearing the dream of a new adventure in science, innovation, and American leadership in space,” Nelson said.
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Through Artemis, NASA’s return-to-the-moon program that also has longer-term visions of crewed missions to Mars within the next two decades, the US seeks to stay ahead of Russia and China, both of which are planning their own human lunar landings.
Only the US has previously landed astronauts in six Apollo missions between 1969 and 1972, while five countries have placed uncrewed spacecraft there.
Japan joined the US, Russia, China, and India last month when its Smart Lander for Investigating the Moon (Slim) made a successful, if awkward touchdown after a three-month flight.
Two further Intuitive Machines launches are scheduled for later this year, including an ice drill to extract ingredients for rocket fuel, and another Nova-C lander containing a small Nasa rover and four small robots that will explore surface conditions.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/feb/22/us-moon-landing-odysseus-intuitive-machines
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US returns to lunar surface with for first time in over 50 years
23 February 2024
A spacecraft built and flown by Texas-based company Intuitive Machines landed near the south pole of the moon, the first US touchdown on the lunar surface in more than half a century, and the first ever achieved entirely by the private sector.
Communication with Odysseus seemed be lost during the final stages of the landing, leaving mission control uncertain as to the precise condition and position of the lander, according to flight controllers heard in the webcast.
US returns to lunar surface for first time in over 50 years: ‘Welcome to the moon.’
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linkstars · 1 year
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What a sight! 👀😳  On November 28, 2022, day 13 of the @NasaArtemis mission, the Orion capsule captured the Earth transiting behind the Moon as it reached its farthest distance from Earth, 268,563 miles (432, 210 km), the farthest any spacecraft designed to carry humans has ever reached
Credit: NASA
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nasa · 1 year
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Meet the Four Artemis Astronauts Who Will Fly Around the Moon
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Today, we revealed the four astronauts who will fly around the Moon during the Artemis II mission, scheduled to launch in 2024. Get to know them:
Christina Koch
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Meet the first member of our Artemis II crew: mission specialist Christina Koch. Koch visited the International Space Station in 2019, where she participated in the first all-woman spacewalk with Jessica Meir. She began her NASA career as an electrical engineer at Goddard Space Flight Center.
Jeremy Hansen
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Representing the Canadian Space Agency is Jeremy Hansen from London, Ontario. Col. Hansen was a fighter pilot with Canadian Armed Forces before joining the Canadian Space Agency, and currently works with NASA on astronaut training and mission operations. This will be Col. Hansen’s first mission in space.
Victor Glover
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Victor Glover is our Artemis II pilot. Glover is part of our 2013 class of NASA astronauts and was the pilot for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1 mission. He’s logged 3,000 flight hours in more than 40 different aircraft.
Reid Wiseman
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...and rounding out our Artemis II crew: mission commander Reid Wiseman. Wiseman lived and worked aboard the International Space Station as a flight engineer in 2014. He also commanded the undersea research mission NEEMO21, and most recently served as Chief of the NASA astronauts.
Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!
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without-ado · 2 years
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Moon: The Hunt for Artemis
l Andrew McCarthy & Connor Matherne
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beauty-funny-trippy · 9 months
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scifigeneration · 4 months
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From the Moon’s south pole to an ice-covered ocean world, several exciting space missions are slated for launch in 2024
by Ali M. Bramson, Assistant Professor of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences at Purdue University
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The year 2023 proved to be an important one for space missions, with NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission returning a sample from an asteroid and India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission exploring the lunar south pole, and 2024 is shaping up to be another exciting year for space exploration.
Several new missions under NASA’s Artemis plan and Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative will target the Moon.
The latter half of the year will feature several exciting launches, with the launch of the Martian Moons eXploration mission in September, Europa Clipper and Hera in October and Artemis II and VIPER to the Moon in November – if everything goes as planned.
I’m a planetary scientist, and here are six of the space missions I’m most excited to follow in 2024.
1. Europa Clipper
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NASA will launch Europa Clipper, which will explore one of Jupiter’s largest moons, Europa. Europa is slightly smaller than Earth’s Moon, with a surface made of ice. Beneath its icy shell, Europa likely harbors a saltwater ocean, which scientists expect contains over twice as much water as all the oceans here on Earth combined.
With Europa Clipper, scientists want to investigate whether Europa’s ocean could be a suitable habitat for extraterrestrial life.
The mission plans to do this by flying past Europa nearly 50 times to study the moon’s icy shell, its surface’s geology and its subsurface ocean. The mission will also look for active geysers spewing out from Europa.
This mission will change the game for scientists hoping to understand ocean worlds like Europa.
The launch window – the period when the mission could launch and achieve its planned route – opens Oct. 10, 2024, and lasts 21 days. The spacecraft will launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket and arrive at the Jupiter system in 2030.
2. Artemis II launch
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The Artemis program, named after Apollo’s twin sister in Greek mythology, is NASA’s plan to go back to the Moon. It will send humans to the Moon for the first time since 1972, including the first woman and the first person of color. Artemis also includes plans for a longer-term, sustained presence in space that will prepare NASA for eventually sending people even farther – to Mars.
Artemis II is the first crewed step in this plan, with four astronauts planned to be on board during the 10-day mission.
The mission builds upon Artemis I, which sent an uncrewed capsule into orbit around the Moon in late 2022.
Artemis II will put the astronauts into orbit around the Moon before returning them home. It is currently planned for launch as early as November 2024. But there is a chance it will get pushed back to 2025, depending on whether all the necessary gear, such as spacesuits and oxygen equipment, is ready.
3. VIPER to search for water on the Moon
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VIPER, which stands for Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, is a robot the size of a golf cart that NASA will use to explore the Moon’s south pole in late 2024.
Originally scheduled for launch in 2023, NASA pushed the mission back to complete more tests on the lander system, which Astrobotic, a private company, developed as part of the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program.
This robotic mission is designed to search for volatiles, which are molecules that easily vaporize, like water and carbon dioxide, at lunar temperatures. These materials could provide resources for future human exploration on the Moon.
The VIPER robot will rely on batteries, heat pipes and radiators throughout its 100-day mission, as it navigates everything from the extreme heat of lunar daylight – when temperatures can reach 224 degrees Fahrenheit (107 degrees Celsius) – to the Moon’s frigid shadowed regions that can reach a mind-boggling -400 F (-240 C).
VIPER’s launch and delivery to the lunar surface is scheduled for November 2024.
4. Lunar Trailblazer and PRIME-1 missions
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NASA has recently invested in a class of small, low-cost planetary missions called SIMPLEx, which stands for Small, Innovative Missions for PLanetary Exploration. These missions save costs by tagging along on other launches as what is called a rideshare, or secondary payload.
One example is the Lunar Trailblazer. Like VIPER, Lunar Trailblazer will look for water on the Moon.
But while VIPER will land on the Moon’s surface, studying a specific area near the south pole in detail, Lunar Trailblazer will orbit the Moon, measuring the temperature of the surface and mapping out the locations of water molecules across the globe.
Currently, Lunar Trailblazer is on track to be ready by early 2024.
However, because it is a secondary payload, Lunar Trailblazer’s launch timing depends on the primary payload’s launch readiness. The PRIME-1 mission, scheduled for a mid-2024 launch, is Lunar Trailblazer’s ride.
PRIME-1 will drill into the Moon – it’s a test run for the kind of drill that VIPER will use. But its launch date will likely depend on whether earlier launches go on time.
An earlier Commercial Lunar Payload Services mission with the same landing partner was pushed back to February 2024 at the earliest, and further delays could push back PRIME-1 and Lunar Trailblazer.
5. JAXA’s Martian Moon eXploration mission
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While Earth’s Moon has many visitors – big and small, robotic and crewed – planned for 2024, Mars’ moons Phobos and Deimos will soon be getting a visitor as well. The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, has a robotic mission in development called the Martian Moon eXploration, or MMX, planned for launch around September 2024.
The mission’s main science objective is to determine the origin of Mars’ moons. Scientists aren’t sure whether Phobos and Deimos are former asteroids that Mars captured into orbit with its gravity or if they formed out of debris that was already in orbit around Mars.
The spacecraft will spend three years around Mars conducting science operations to observe Phobos and Deimos. MMX will also land on Phobos’ surface and collect a sample before returning to Earth.
6. ESA’s Hera mission
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Hera is a mission by the European Space Agency to return to the Didymos-Dimorphos asteroid system that NASA’s DART mission visited in 2022.
But DART didn’t just visit these asteroids, it collided with one of them to test a planetary defense technique called “kinetic impact.” DART hit Dimorphos with such force that it actually changed its orbit.
The kinetic impact technique smashes something into an object in order to alter its path. This could prove useful if humanity ever finds a potentially hazardous object on a collision course with Earth and needs to redirect it.
Hera will launch in October 2024, making its way in late 2026 to Didymos and Dimorphos, where it will study physical properties of the asteroids.
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