![]() The lander is carrying a very interesting object – 125 silver mini-Moons a couple of centimetres in diameter, stacked in a transparent box and bolted to the side of the spacecraft.Įach mini-Moon represents a famous person who made a difference in the world. Here's what space archaeologist Dr Alice Gorman from Flinders University has to say about it: And who knows what else might be impacted? Without care, we risk disrupting these cycles before we fully understand them. The dust movement means scientists will have to figure out what's natural and what's cultural in the environment.Īnother issue is that it's clear the Moon has water cycles. ![]() One scenario is that enough dust may be lofted into orbit to create a cloud around the Moon. It's going to be much more of a worry when there is regular traffic and industrial activity. There will be lots of dust blown about from this landing, but this is small-scale disturbance. The lander is going to be collecting data on the process of landing to understand better how to deal with the dust. One of the biggest problems in human activities on the Moon is the lunar dust, which is very sticky and abrasive. Hi Michael, here is what Dr Alice Gorman says: The CLPS approach all but guarantees some failures, but eventually NASA hopes that low cost commercial launch and landing providers will emerge from the program.Ī question for Alice: In what sense(s) are there "environmental impacts" from landing? Is the concern more about future impacts, e.g., mining? Highlighting the challenges of such endeavours, low cost Israeli, Russian and Indian landers have all crashed into the Moon attempting soft landings over the past few years.īy funding Intuitive Machines' Odysseus lander, NASA is spending about $US100 million ($153 million) to land six scientific payloads. Astrobotic's Peregrine lander was the first to launch in January, but a propellant leak forced the mission to be aborted shortly after entering Earth's orbit. ![]() NASA has awarded nine CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) contracts to several different companies with the goal of testing different concepts and challenging industry to succeed with what can seem like shoestring budgets.Įach mission will deliver commercial payloads as well as the science payloads contracted by NASA. In the meantime it has funded commercial companies in the US to develop lunar landing concepts in the hope of reducing the delivery costs of lunar payloads while allowing NASA engineers to focus on other challenges. NASA has lately focused on Mars and other destinations further afield. We asked Dr David Flannery why NASA took part in this mission, and where its focus has shifted these days. Why has no one landed on the moon in so long? And why don't we send people anymore? Is it because the moon is boring? "The data collected by IM-1 from the lunar surface will help pave the way for future robotic and crewed missions." "Murriyang, CSIRO's Parkes radio telescope, will be one of several ground stations tracking Intuitive Machines' first lunar mission IM-1 delivering experiments from NASA and other partners to the Moon. When asked why the CSIRO was supporting Intuitive Machines' first lunar mission, CSIRO astronomer John Sarkissian said: "It is exciting to think of all the new things we will learn about our place in the Universe with these increased capabilities." Consider the technological advances of the past 50 years, Murriyang is now more than 10,000 times more sensitive than it was when we helped track the Apollo 11 mission in 1969 and humans have been able to expand our computing capabilities more than a billion times since then! "Space exploration is so incredibly difficult and I am proud that Murriyang is once again playing a role. Murriyang, CSIRO's Parkes radio telescope, is one of the ground stations tracking and receiving data from IM-1.ĬSIRO astrophysicist Dr Jane Kaczmarek says she is excited by the mission:
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |