News Archive
May - Dec 2007
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New isotopic data from lunar rock
samples suggests that our Moon may have formed later than once
believed. The research, as reported in the journal,
Nature, is based around decay measurements of tungsten (W)
metal isotopes inside the rock samples. The Moon's origin is
believed to have come about when the early proto-Earth was struck by
a Mars-sized object. Vast amounts of impactor and early proto-Earth
material mixed together as it orbited around the disrupted Earth,
and this later accreted to form the Moon. However, because of the
enormous energies involved in the impact, both bodies developed a
global-scale magma ocean each, which then cooled and solidified into
the Earth and Moon we see today. Radiometric decay data of W locked
within the Earth and the Moon initially suggested that the event may
have occurred around 30 million years after the Solar System was
born 4.567 billion years ago. But this new research is saying that
these previous data were not completely corrected for from another
tungsten variant - 182W produced by the decay of 182Ta
(tantalum) - which incurs an excess of the original W isotope. As a
result, spurious ages for the age of the formation of the Moon
arise. Taking this into account, the research indicates that the
Moon could not have formed before 62 million years after the
initiation of Solar System accretion. The new age agrees with
previous findings that the rate of magma-ocean solidification was
much slower than once thought, and that other planets in the Solar
System may have gone through similar processes. The later time for
the Moon's formation (which, therefore, makes the Moon younger)
challenges the current view that the terrestrial planets grew
rapidly, and also challenges ideas about their early cooling
histories. It may mean that Earth and Mars took at least 50 million
years, and possibly hundreds of millions of years, to reach their
final mass (that is, 99% of their present size).Top
An instrument onboard Japan's recently
launched lunar spacecraft, KAGUYA, has taken the first ever continuous reflectance
spectra of the farside of the Moon. Just one of 15 instruments
onboard the main orbiting spacecraft, the
Spectral Profiler (SP) spectrometer was able to take images in
the visible to near infrared region (from 0.5 to 2.6nm, with
spectral resolution of 6 to 8nm and spatial resolution 500m) of the
lunar surface as it flew some 100 km above. Data from the SP,
together with several other instruments onboard, for example, the
Multi-band Imager, the X-ray Spectrometer and the Gamma-ray
Spectrometer, will give an overall perspective about the moon’s
mineralogical distribution and composition. Serious studies about
these mineral distributions and compositions won't, therefore, begin
until all instruments onboard KAGUYA are working together properly.
That said, engineers at
JAXA are currently working with each instrument to test and
calibrate them before KAGUYA is truly deemed a working orbiting
probe.
Top
"Houston, Altair has landed" will most
likely be the words uttered by an astronaut in the near future as
he/she sets down on the lunar surface. The reusable Altair (formerly
called the Lunar Surface Access Module) will be capable of putting
four astronauts down on the lunar surface, and then returning them
back into space where it will dock with an orbiting spacecraft
(Orion) overhead for safe return to Earth. Under NASA's
Constellation program, Altair will be launched separately from Earth
onboard an Ares V rocket into low earth orbit, while Orion (with
crew members onboard) will be launched on a Ares I rocket. The two
will then dock in space, transfer into lunar orbit, and then Altair
will undock from the Orion spacecraft and descend down to the
surface for a weeklong mission. Altair reusables are hoped to
deliver equipment and essential supplies to build the foundations
for the first outpost on the Moon (possibly in the South Pole
region), which is expected to be fully established by 2020. Previous
designs for the module envisioned a large habitat to be left on the
lunar surface, with a separate ascent stage for returning astronauts
back into lunar orbit, however, as first design concepts have yet to
be announced (and tested and built between 2009 and 2011), the 47
metric tonne mass requirement will be somewhat of a challenge. While
the name Altair has its roots somewhere in the Arabic language
(Altair = "the flying one"), the lander will, however, prove a
testing ground not only for landings of an ascent stage on the lunar
surface, but also how future landers will be produced and designed
(both philosophically as well as technically) for the many different
landing requirements on other planets in our Solar System.Top
According to new research by scientists
working in Washington University, earth's magnetic shield (its
magnetosphere) which deflects dangerous high energy solar particles
away from us, could also be deflecting lower energetic ionospheric
particles from striking the Moon. Solar energetic particles (or
SEPs) are predominantly produced during solar flares (solar storms)
on the Sun which occur from the abrupt release of the energy stored
in the sun's magnetic fields. These particles stream outwards away
from the solar flare event close to the speed of light, and strike
earth's upper atmosphere that sometimes cause disruption to orbiting
communications satellites. The particles, however, also have an
effect in earth's ionosphere, primarily with oxygen, which produce a
secondary stream of less energetic particles (ionospheric particles)
that flow mainly in the tail end of the magnetosphere. As the Moon
is always encompassed within the magnetosphere, the ionospheric
particles as they flow past it can sometimes be denser at certain
times during certain points in the moon's orbit around the Earth.
The researchers in Washington, however, are saying that while this
may be the case, it also can be the reverse where the magnetosphere
can deflect away the harmful particles, producing less denser
concentrations at certain times in the moon's orbit around the
Earth. Thus, for an astronaut working on the lunar surface during
such a particle event, his exposure would very much be increased or
decreased depending upon his location, and the position of the Moon
in its orbit around the Earth. The research could be of significant
use for those astronauts who will work on the Moon in the coming
future.
Top
Of the three Discovery missions -
VESPER (a Venus mission), OSIRIS (an asteroid mission) and GRAIL (a
Moon mission) - picked today by NASA, the latter will join an array
of other planned missions to the Moon in the very near future.
Consisting of two small orbiting probes to measure the moon's weak
gravity field, GRAIL (Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory) will
orbit the Moon for upto 90 days and detect minute variances in the
moon's gravity using microwave ranging instruments as it passes over
the lunar surface. The measurements should reveal the slightest
changes in the moon's weak gravity, and produce data nearly a
thousand times better than from previous lunar missions todate. In
effect, the survey should tell an awful lot about the Moon's
interior from crust to core, reveal some new findings about the
moon's subsurface structure and thermal history, and also about the
formation of rocky planets and moons. A camera aboard each
spacecraft will also allow students and the public to interact with
observations from the satellites. The $375m mission is expected to
launch around 2011, and the data retrieved will be used to
compliment future missions like the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter due
for launch in October 2008 as well as support NASA's exploration
goals for returning humans to the moon by 2020.
NASA's Discovery Program
was created in 1992 as a response to get cost-effective, but
highly-focused missions into space to carry out research for support
of more larger missions in the future. GRAIL was chosen from 24
submissions, all of which had to contain certain scientific
requirements from implementation aspects to technical issues.
Top
According to a new study, as reported
in the current issue of
Nature, of a moon meteorite found in the Kalahari Desert,
geologic evidence inside it may suggest that volcanoes on the lunar
surface erupted earlier than once thought. Previous studies of rock
samples taken during the Apollo program between 1969 to 1972
suggested that volcanic activity on the Moon occurred mainly after
the LHB (Late Heavy Bombardment) some 3.8 to 3.9 billion years ago.
However, the research conducted by a leading team of international
scientists now suggest that the activity may have occurred 150
million years after the Moon formed (the Moon is believed to have
formed 4.5 billion years ago). During the LHB, the Moon's surface
was heavily bombarded by meteorites which produced huge craters
where joint fissures and volcanoes allowed lava to erupt onto the
surface, producing the huge basalt plains or Mares ('Seas') we see
on the Moon's surface today. However, as the Kalahari meteorite,
which is a basaltic type rock (lava becomes basaltic when it cools)
that contains a specific ratio of certain elements created as a
result of the splitting of uranium, the unique ratio puts the
meteorite's age and formation at around 4.35 billion old. The result
may indicate that magma was being erupted onto the lunar surface
very soon (in geologic terms) after the Moon had formed. The
majority of known mare basalt samples have ages younger than about
3.9, however, as there aren't enough samples of other ancient lunar
basalts like the Kalahari meteorite, definitive evidence of early
lunar volcanic activity is rare. The Kalahari meteorite was
discovered in Botswana in 1999, and is one of the oldest-known mare
basaltic samples in existence on Earth. It is classified as a
very-low-Ti mare-basalt breccia (that is, its geologic makeup
consists of very low titanium content), which derived from a
relatively depleted source of magma material during its ascent from
the lunar interior.
Top
A single mosaic of 30 images taken of
the lunar north pole by the European Space Agency's
SMART-1
mission is giving a whole new view of the region like never before.
Covering an area of approximately 800km by 600km in size, the image,
which shows a range of craters of many different sizes, is of
special interest because some of the craters in permanent shadow may
harbour water-ice deposits. The deposits, which may likely be
volatiles left behind by comets and water-rich asteroids as they
crashed onto the Moon during its formation, could prove very useful
in the future for establishment of a lunar base. Colonists living at
the base would need plenty of water to grow food, produce rocket
fuel (from the hydrogen in H2O), and build up oxygen reserves for
breathing. Moreover, water could also act a barrier against
dangerous radiation to astronauts. The deposits, which may lie
several feet down in frozen layers of lunar soil within the shadowed
regions, could be extracted by the colonists as they set up the
lunar base. Two previous missions,
Clementine and
Lunar Prospector, detected water-ice signatures back in the
1990s around both pole regions, but analyses of the data has proved
a controversial issue. Several missions planned to go to the Moon
within this decade and the next (see
Missions page) will again
check to see if they do really exist, as their potential and
importance will play a very major role in the success of future
space exploration. If, however, a lunar base is going to be
established in the near future, the lunar north pole won't exactly
be first choice of site as, unlike the south pole, very few craters
there remain in shadow. The original mosaic of images from SMART-1'
were taken with the Advanced Moon Imaging Experiment (AMIE)
micro-camera onboard the probe between May 2005 and February 2006.
As it flew over the region at a distance of about 3000km, the camera
took hundreds of close-up photos of the surface through both
wide-field (about 300km across) and medium-resolution views (300
metres per pixel) -- each image photographed through coloured
filters and long exposures. On the 3 September 2006, SMART-1 was
intentionally crashed onto the surface at the Lake of Excellence, as
astronomers back on Earth recorded the event through telescopes
around the world - hoping to learn more about impact dynamics and
debris kicked up from the event.
Top
As the recently launched Chinese
Chang'e 1 lunar
orbiter continues to collect high resolution images of the moon's
surface, officials involved with the mission suggest that a new
global map of the Moon is on the way. Previous global maps of the
Moon have only been produced from observational data gathered by
American, Russian and European lunar orbiters, and as a consequence
features and lunar landmarks have mostly been given names from a
western perspective - honouring, mostly, people who made a major
contribution to science, philosophy and astronomy...etc. However, as
Chang'e 1 is currently the only lunar probe orbiting the Moon at the
moment, and will have upto several months of lunar mapping ahead of
two planned missions in 2008 (NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
and India's Chandraan-1), new discoveries in the intervening period are set
to be given an eastern influence. Chinese people may, over the next
few months, hear announcements of names that they may be familiar
with. For instance, will there be the Yang Liwei (China's first
astronaut) crater, the Mao Zedong Sea mare (Sea), or even the Peking
rille? The list is endless! There are currently upto nine craters on
the Moon named after Chinese - four on the nearside (the side of the
Moon that always faces Earth) and 5 on the farside. One is named
after the famous Chinese pioneering astronomer, Kao Ping-Tse, the
astrologist, Shi-Shen, the mathematician, Tsu Chung-Chi, and even
the Chinese mythical female character, Chang-Ngo, who stole and
swallowed her husband's long-life elixir that, in the end, made her
fly to the Moon and never to return to Earth again. While some of
these people and characters will, obviously, be unknown (if not
mispronounced) by most westerners, Chinese people around the world
will easily recognise them, and gratify at the place of recognition
they have been given on the Moon.
Top
In a surprising turnaround to last
week's release by the China National Space Administration (CNSA)
of a photo taken by the country's only lunar orbiter, Chang'e 1,
controversy surrounds the authenticity of the image. The trouble
began when regular moon observers on Chinese websites suggested that
the Chang'e 1 photo looked very similar to a photo from one of
NASA's lunar orbiters - possibly the Clementine 1994 mission - taken
some years ago. The region in both pictures do look very alike,
however, in the Chang'e 1 photo there appears to be an additional
feature - an extra crater (circled), which further sparked the
controversy. Chinese officials from the administration, of course,
denied the allegations saying the Chang'e 1 photo is authentic, and
that the two show differences of light direction and shadows in
certain craters. As the resolution is much better in the Chang'e 1
image than the Clementine image, close inspection does show nicely
the differences between the two and, moreover, the extra crater can
be explained. It appears that one strip of Chang'e 1's 19 individual
photos taken of the area may be overlapping onto another photo strip
at a slight misalignment, and it's this that is producing the
additional crater effect. The original observers who instigated the
controversy have so far made no response to CNSA, however, it looks
like they may now have egg noodles on their face. The original
Chang'e 1 photo was unveiled to the public on the 26 November 2007
by the Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao, and the mission is China's first
venture to the Moon. Over a period of a year, the spacecraft will
take abundance and distribution measurements of elements on the
lunar surface, and explore the solar wind environment between the
Earth and the Moon.
Top
Plans of
Odyssey Moon, a privately
funded mission that proposes to land a robotic probe on the lunar
surface, will be unveiled this Thursday, 6 December, at the
Space
Investment Summit in San Jose, California. Representatives of
the proposed mission, just one in the 350 other proposed missions
from teams worldwide, is vying for the sum of $30 million offered on
the 13 September last by Google who want small companies or groups
of individuals to build and launch a spacecraft to the Moon. The
team working on Odyssey Moon is mainly Isle of Man-based, and
intentions are, firstly, to deliver a small robotic lander to the
surface with a scientific payload onboard, followed later by
additional exploration and commercial payloads. At least 40
countries among the 350 are involved in the competition, and the
team working with Odyssey Moon is the first to complete registration
for the PRIZE. The
Google Lunar X Prize, as it is officially known, is financially
backed by Googleeer’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin, working with the X
Prize Foundation in Santa Monica, California. Of course, not all of
the 350 proposed mission designs will come to fruition before the
competition deadline ends in 2014, however, as the PRIZE has gained
so much attention from highly respected companies around the world,
the overall winner could easily be announced within the next three
to four years. Some of the countries that made proposals include:
Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile,
China, Colombia, Côte d'Ivoire, Finland, France, Germany, Greece,
India, Iran, Isle of Man, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico,
Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, Romania, Russia,
Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Syria, Tunisia,
Turkey, UK, Ukraine, and the USA. The main aim of the competition,
however, is to encourage a global, private race to the Moon - well
before any main space agency or international government can - and
those interested in registering can do so (see
registration form here).
Top
Today, the China National Space
Administration (CNSA)
released its
first picture of the Moon taken by the Chang'e-1 lunar orbiter
that launched on 24 October 2007. The image was unveiled at the
Beijing Aerospace Control Centre by the Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao,
who, in a passionate and inspiring speech, hailed it as a major step
in China's dream of exploring the moon. The rectangular image, which
shows an area of the lunar surface some 460 km by 280 km in size
(lunar coordinates 54 to 70S, 57 to 83E) was pieced together from 19
individual photos taken by its onboard CCD stereo camera. The launch
of Chang'e-1 is the third milestone in China's space exploration
program, and follows on previous successes that the country has had
in putting communication satellites into space, as well as a manned
flight in 2003. China's future exploration plans sees a moon landing
and launch of a moon rover around 2012, and another rover to land on
the Moon that will retrieve lunar soil and return it to Earth around
2017. No manned lunar landings are planned as yet, however, CNSA
says that this does not rule out one in the near future. The
2,350-kg Chang'e-1 satellite, which has an array of upto eight
scientific instruments, is set to carry out a three-dimensional
survey of the Moon over a period of a year, and take abundance and
distribution measurements of elements on the lunar surface. It will
also investigate characteristics of the lunar soil (the regolith),
and explore the solar wind environment between the Earth and the
Moon.
Top
The
eighteenth century Moon map, created by
Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr (1677 - 1750) - a German
mathematician, astronomer and cartographer - that recently went up
for sale on eBay failed to meet its reserve price (unknown) on
Thursday (Nov-22-07 11:55:00 PST). The bidding stopped at $1,580.00
from nine bidders during the 24 bids in total that were made. The
engraved map is one of the best-known works of Doppelmayr, which was
published in the Atlas Novus Coelestis in 1742. The atlas
was intended as a general introduction to astronomy, and contained
upto 30 star charts and illustrations of planetary systems. Many
works from several renowned scientists of the day were also
included; from the elliptic theories of Kepler, Boulliau, Seth Ward
to the lunar theories of Tycho Brahe, Horrocks and Newton, as well
as the cometary theory of Edmund Halley (he of comet Halley fame).
Doppelmayr during his career created several sundials and
mathematical instruments, and while he made no discoveries of
importance himself, he successfully disseminated and translated
several scientific works of others from French into English into
German. He died on 1st December 1750 in Nuremberg. In 1791, the
German lunar and planetary observer Johann Hieronymus Schroeter
named a lunar crater (64 kilometres in diameter just on the edge of
Mare Humorum at 42W, 28S) after him.
Top
A new study by a group of scientists
working with the NASA Spitzer
Space Telescope suggest that the formation of the Moon in our
Solar System is uncommon in the Universe. The study, which involved
observing upto 400 young stars for signatures of dust - produced as
a result of collisions between rocky material orbiting around the
stars that would eventually form into planets and moons - signified
that only 1 in the 400 showed the tell-tale sign. Our own Moon is
believed to have formed from the early forming Earth over 4 billion
years ago, when a Mars-sized object struck it a glancing blow. The
impact ejected vast amounts of material and dust into obit around
the Earth, and this later accreted together to form the Moon. Based
on the assumption that if this is the normal, dynamic process of how
planets and moons form in young star systems (in the study case all
the stars were roughly 30 million years old), then the dust
signatures around such systems should show up. But, according to the
400 observations, they don't. The scientists were able to calculate
the probability of a solar system making a moon like Earth's, and
found that the likely chance of one forming amounted to only 5 to 10
percent at most. From their results, they are now suggesting that,
for the most part, planet and moon formation has ended by 30
millions years after a young star has formed. The results will
appear in the 20 November 2007 issue of the
Astrophysical Journal (Volume 670, Number 1, Part 1).
Top
The South Korean's Ministry of Science
and Technology (MOST) has
announced that their country will put a probe in orbit around the
Moon by 2020, and a lander on its surface by 2025. Responsible for
the planned launches will be the Daejeon-based Korean Aerospace
Research Institute (KARI)
- currently preparing a small launch vehicle (KSLV-I) capable of
lofting a 100 kilogram satellite into low orbit around the Earth in
2008. A newer, but larger version to be built by 2017, called the
KSLV-II, will be used to get the two planned missions to the Moon,
and will be capable of carrying much heavier payloads. The orbiter
probe is expected to take three years to build, and will be used to
take images of the moon's surface and carry out other lunar
research. The second probe will include an orbiter, a lander and a
remote-controlled robot, which will carry out scientific experiments
on the surface. South Korea has over the last decade sent several
small communication and research satellites into space using
foreign-launched rockets, however, the country is now adopting a
more independent approach as KARI receives increased spending by the
Korean Government. KARI is set to complete construction of a space
research centre (Naro Space Centre) and a rocket launching pad on an
island some 500 km south of Seoul in 2008, and next April will send
their own Korean astronaut, Ko San, with two other cosmonauts
onboard a Russian vehicle to the International Space Station. KARI's
main functions include conducting R&D on satellites, sounding
rockets and aircraft, technical support for Korean aerospace
industries, and assistance to the government's policy in the
aerospace field.
Top
During a 13-month long test to be
staged at the
McMurdo
Station situated in the Antarctic, NASA are to deploy an
inflatable habitat that may someday may be used on the lunar
surface. Looking, for all intents and purposes, like a plastic
greenhouse that one might set up in a back garden, the inflatable
habitat will be used to collect data about how the harsh conditions
in the Antarctic may affect its performance and design. The habitat
is loaded with sensors throughout to record power consumption and
damage tolerance in such extreme environments, and engineers will
also study improvements in packing, transportation and its set up.
While these conditions may not represent exactly those that
astronauts will experience while living on the Moon (or Mars), they
are, however, a close comparison. Inflatable habitats have the
advantage over other metal-type habitats in that they are extremely
lightweight but strong. They are also extremely flexible, enough so
to be redeployed and collapsed several times over in very short
times, and small enough (when collapsed) to be stored easily in
tight spaces onboard a spacecraft. The habitats are usually made up
from composite materials (for instance, layers of carbon fibre)
that, when bonded together with epoxy resin, gives them an even
stronger 'strength-to-weight' ratio than other light-weight metals
such as aluminium. Moreover, they can provide radiation and
hypervelocity particle impact protection from outside threats, and
maintain a warm and comfortable environment for its inhabitants
inside. This habitat experiment is just one of a number of concepts
that NASA is testing for possible use on planets and moons within
our Solar System. And while they won't exactly be the main habitat
that will make up the final lunar base, their ease of construction
will allow them to be used for extension of existing, but more
sturdier, habitats and laboratories, as well for use in away sorties
from the main base. The habitat is being developed under NASA’s
Innovative Partnership Program,
who are partnering on the project with the
National Science Foundation (NSF)
and ILC Dover - the same
company which created the spacesuits that astronauts used on the
Moon during the Apollo program.
Top
The Japanese spacecraft,
KAGUYA, that currently
is orbiting the Moon, has taken the first high definition images of
the Earth 'rising' and the 'setting' over the lunar limb. Floating
like a small, blue-white marble backdropped against a dark sky and a
series of huge craters on the lunar surface, the earth-rise/set
images were observed, not as a direct result of the Earth actually
rising or setting at the moon's horizon, but rather KAGUYA's view of
it as it orbits around the Moon. This doesn't mean to say that
earth-risings and earth-settings aren't possible from the Moon
itself for someone standing on its surface. During its orbit around
Earth, the moon's speed and rotational axial tilt changes as a
result of it being synchronously locked with the Earth - that is,
the moon's monthly rotation on its axis roughly equals its monthly
orbital revolution around our planet. This 'locked setup' between
the two produces what are known as libration effects, where the Moon
appears to 'nod' and 'wobble' (but not actual physical nodding or
wobbling of the Moon) in its orbit, as viewed from Earth. For
someone standing on the Moon, therefore, at certain locations
(mainly around the poles and the equator's edges), these libration
effects would cause the person to see earth-rises and earth-sets.
The KAGUYA images are something that will become very common over
the mission's lifetime, and something that future lunar explorers
will see as they live and work at a lunar base - expected to be
established by 2020. While the HDTV images aren't the first KAGUYA
has taken of the Earth since the mission launched on
14 September 2007, they are, however, the world's first
high-definition earth-rise and earth-set images taken from about
380,000 km away from the Earth in space. For more images of the
event see
here.
Top
The first images taken of the lunar
surface from an altitude of 100 kilometres by Japan's unmanned Moon
mission, KAGUYA (or
SELENE), are proving to be excellent. The images, taken by the
onboard high definition TV camera (HDTV), show a very detailed
surface area of craters and other lunar features close to the
northern end of Oceanus Procellarum (Ocean of Storms). The HDTV took
a series of images on the 31 October as KAGUYA passed over the
region in a polar orbit around the Moon, and each was taken from
different angles and during different shading conditions. This isn't
the first time that the HDTV has been used, as on 1 October last it
also took the first high-definition image of the Earth from so deep
in space (about 110,000 km away from the Earth). All images were
received at the JAXA Usuda Deep Space Centre in Japan, and processed
by the Nihon Hoso Kyokai (NHK)
Japanese Broadcasting Corporation. KAGUYA was launched on 14
September 2007 from the Tanegashima Space Centre, and its primary
objectives are to obtain scientific data about the moon's origin and
evolution through means of mapping the surface. It will also release
two other smaller satellites in the coming weeks that will use an
array of scientific instruments to take selenodesic (the physical
geography) and gravimetric (gravity) measurements of the lunar
surface. For more and larger images taken by KAGUYA, see
here from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
website.
Top
Beginning on the 16 November 2007 and
running right through to 17 February 2008, the
Chester Beatty Library in Dublin,
Ireland, will exhibit a series of 100 woodblock prints with the Moon
as its central character. Produced by Japanese artist, Tsukioka
Yoshitoshi who completed them shortly before his death in 1892, the
"One Hundred Aspects of the Moon", exhibition links together ancient
stories from Japanese and Chinese legend and history, and the
artist's own social comment about his country's glorious past in an
approaching western ideology, forced into Japan during the 1860s.
The prints also have an underlying theme running through them of
poverty and the state of mental illness, as Yoshitoshi himself
experienced later in life through depression as commissions grew
scarce. These experiences had an enormous effect on his style, which
led him to produce prints that looked more at the psychological
aspect of a particular event or persona, and how the viewer might
understand them. The exhibition is being lent by the Museum of
International Folk Art, Museum of New Mexico, USA, which was
collected from all over the world by the late Joseph and Else
Chapman. The Chester Beatty Library is housed in an
eighteenth-century Clock Tower Building, and is world famous for its
collection of rare artistic, religious and secular manuscripts and
books - some of which include representative samples of the world’s
heritage from about 2700 BC to the present century.
Top
Orbital data returned so far from the
Chang'e 1 mission
which launched two weeks ago on a one-year mission to the moon are
so positive that the spacecraft is now having to skip correction
manoeuvres. The spacecraft is behaving so well, in fact (says
controllers at the Beijing Aerospace Control Centre), that the
planned orbital manoeuvre to lower its orbit for tomorrow, 6 Nov.,
needn't go ahead because Chang'e 1 is right on the button. Another
orbit correction (really, breaking manoeuvres that slow down the
speed of the craft) is planned the next day, 7 Nov., and after that,
Chang'e 1 is on its final approach to the Moon. This is good news
for the spacecraft's future as the skip in manoeuvres saves a lot of
fuel, allowing possible extension to the year-long mission by upto
several months at least. The orbital manoeuvres are designed to
ensure that the craft is lined up properly for its final trajectory
before it enters into orbit around the Moon. These manoeuvres are an
essential requirement for any spacecraft about to approach a planet
or any other celestial object, like a comet or asteroid, because if
they don't work correctly in time, missions could be put in
jeopardy. As Chang'e 1's speed and position are within necessary
bounds, controllers on Earth monitoring the craft say that it is
safe for it fly to the Moon directly. Several corrections have
already been carried out since Chang'e 1 entered into an Earth/Moon
transfer orbit over the last few days, and now all that is for it to
be captured by the moon’s gravity. Small bursts from rocket firings
will then place the spacecraft into a circular, polar orbit where
the mission can truly begin. Chang'e will globally map the Moon,
analyze the content and distribution of elements on its surface, and
take thickness measurements of the lunar soil. Chang'e 1 will also
measure the spatial distribution of low-energy ions in the solar
wind and the near-lunar region.
Top
NASA's
Centennial
Challenges Program is offering $2 million to any one, or team of
people, who can demonstrate that they can design a rocket which
could be used for future lunar research. To win the prize,
participants must design a rocket that can take off vertically,
climb to a defined altitude, and then land again vertically at
another fixed target from the launch-pad. They then have to do the
reverse procedure all over again within a predetermined time, until
the rocket has landed back on its original pad. The whole idea
behind the competition is to get businesses and technologies
involved in designing a commercially viable rocket for the moon,
that could some day be used to ferry humans and cargo there and back
again to Earth. Offer of the prize will take place during the
Wirefly X PRIZE Cup,
held at the Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico on 26 to 28
October.
Top
Within the next few weeks the moon is
yet again to receive another visiting spacecraft that only last
month saw the Japanese spacecraft,
Kaguya, enter into
orbit around its environment.
Chang’e 1 is China’s
first step of a three-stage moon program, which over the coming
decade will involve a lander probe setting down on the lunar surface
around 2012, and a sample return mission of soil and rocks back to
Earth around 2020. The spacecraft will use a series of scientific
instruments to obtain three-dimensional images of the lunar surface,
take distribution measurements of essential elements for possible
exploitation in the near future, and acquire thickness depths of the
moon’s soil – the regolith. Expected to last a year, with possible
extension afterwards depending on its health status, Chang’e 1 will
also take measurements of ion activity in the solar wind and the
near-lunar region. Both China and Japan are the first countries to
get back to the Moon again since last visited by the ESA Smart-1
mission back in September 2006 (which was intentionally crashed onto
the lunar surface), as several more countries, like the
USA,
India,
Germany and
Russia
also plan to return over the coming years.
Top
It’s always been known that gamma rays
emit off the surface of the moon, caused as a result of cosmic rays
striking its surface. Now scientists working with the Gamma-Ray
Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST)
suggest that they may be able to use the moon’s gamma rays to
calibrate instruments on the telescope. Cosmic rays are charged
particles in space that come from stars and our Sun. Some of these
rays have very high energies that when they strike with the nucleus
of atoms in soil, for example, the moon’s soil, a scattering of
nuclei (neutrons) is released. These, in turn, collide with each
other in the process producing an ‘excitation’ effect, which then
emit gamma rays to release the extra energy so that they can return
to their normal rest state. As the scientists working with GLAST
know with certainty the rate of these gamma rays coming off the
moon, the telescope should receive a percentage of these rays
according to how well the instrument is calibrated. This calibration
can then be cross-checked with other calibration methods for the
telescope to ensure that GLAST is working fine. GLAST is scheduled
for launch in early 2008. It will look at objects that emit high
energy wavelengths of light, and will complement NASA's Reuven
Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI)
mission, a satellite launched in 2002.
Top
Lunar research wouldn’t be top of the
list of choice for most PhDs students heading into full-time career
positions right now. With little R&A (Research & Analysis) funding
available to them in this area, and missions to the Moon far and few
between, more and more are opting into main-stream research in other
fields of astronomy. Now, NASA is trying to stem this ebbing tide by
creating the NASA Lunar Science Institute (NLSI). Its main objective
will be to entice young scientists into lunar research now, so as
that a more mature community of lunar scientists would be around in
time for return to the Moon within the next decade (currently, those
working in lunar research are of the Apollo era). The new NLSI is a
welcome initiative, and adds an additional boost for lunar research
to already existing programs like, for instance, the LSSO (Lunar
Sortie Science Opportunities) program and the new LASER (Lunar
Advanced Science and Exploration Research) R&A program (see more on
these programs
here). Managed by NASA Ames Research Centre, NLSI will initially
create 4 to 5 teams at a cost of $1m to $2m each, which is expected
to increase on a yearly basis as more and more apply for positions.
Top
Within the next decade after “boots on
the Moon” have successfully walked there again, survival for the
lunarnauts as they live and work on the surface will most certainly
depend on factors of transport and habitat. Already the Ares and
Orion rockets for getting to the Moon are well in their advanced
stage, however, transport and habitat designs for use on the lunar
surface are very much way behind. NASA and others are now
considering (and testing) new approaches that might work, so trial
and error are much to the foe on these essential survival products.
The most favoured approach from NASA right now for the future lunar
architecture is to land as large a complete habitat as is possible
(the Ares V launch vehicle has a shroud diameter of 8.7 metres) on
the surface, and possibly join other complete habitats to it
afterwards in as few flights as is possible. These would then form
the foundations for building a much larger base, possibly at
Shackleton Crater near the South Pole, and all done within the
constraints of the necessary lunar architecture of power supplies,
living quarters and rovers. In respects of a better rover, for
example, the unpressurized Apollo rover used back in the 70s had a
limited range of 10-15 km, however, NASA are now looking at using a
pressurised rover that would be capable of towing a trailer and
having a pressurised compartment with spacesuits attached. The
Lunarnauts could then easily step into the suits and walk on the
surface, and step back out again into the pressurised compartment
when finished their work. The trailer could also be filled with
supplies and scientific instruments for longer missions; allowing
sorties of upto 3 to 14 days in length (travelling upto 200 km and
960 km away from base respectively). Starting with incremental
build-up of four-person crews making several, seven-day visits to
the moon, the first base is expected to start around 2020.
Top
Google Moon is getting better as now it is possible to zoom in
on areas where most of the Apollo missions took place. On-liners get
a feel for all the locations the astronauts visited - through
pictures accompanied with text - learning about the features they
encountered and their interaction with the lunar surface. Google
Moon was launched last year and currently is getting a major
make-over. In the meantime, Google are offering $30 million to
companies that can land a robot camera to roam on the Moon and send
back high-resolution snaps and data. Upto $20 million of the prize
money will go towards design of a vehicle that can move around
automatically and transmit data back to Earth, while the other $10
million will be divided up in half - $5 million offered for a
stationary device that sends data, and $5 million for a robot
vehicle that discovers ice or water, that can travel further than
five kilometres or capture images of space vehicles abandoned there
from old missions. The prizes are offered until December 31, 2012,
after which a lowered grand prize of 12 million dollars can be won.Top
Japan’s
SELENE, or Kaguya,
spacecraft is finally on its way to the Moon for a year-long mission
to conduct a global survey of its surface. Equipped with a suite of
scientific instruments onboard, the probe will look in areas, such
as, the moon’s mineralogical composition, its tectonic history, and
investigate areas of interest at its polar regions of potential
sites for construction of an astronomical observatory. Kaguya will
also release two small satellites on different orbits around the
Moon to carry out gravitometric measurements of the lunar farside,
and detection of the moon’s tenuous ionosphere. Though Japan are
initially proposing a year-long mission, if the probe is still in
good condition it could get an additional extension, else, all three
could be intentionally crashed onto the lunar surface to find out
more about its soil. On another, less scientific note, Kaguya will
also carry more than 400,000 names and messages from people who
submitted them last year – the reasons of which were mainly for
getting people interested in the mission. Kaguya will also kick off
an International Lunar Decade, where several nations around the
world are currently preparing unmanned and manned missions to go to
the Moon.
Top
Among the many recommendations
published in a
new report from the Space Exploration Working Group in the
United Kingdom, a new 5-year-long programme could see British
astronauts in space by 2014 and working at a lunar base by 2020. The
report makes several recommendations about the UK's involvement in
human
spaceflight and ways to take a more independent route in future
lunar research projects. By avoiding the normal but costly route in
programmes associated with NASA or ESA, the UK would instead
purchase seats on Russian Soyuz rockets and train their future
astronauts there. The costs – amounting to between £50 and £70
million over the five-year period – could see two UK astronauts
working onboard the International Space Station by 2014 at first,
and then working alongside other international space agencies at a
lunar base in research of the moon and its many resources. The UK
has been technically involved with lunar robotic missions in the
past and has a wealth of expertise in this area, but now is the
time, the report recommends, to get involved more. Through
facilitation of robotic equipment in areas, for example, in rover,
seismic and sample-return lunar projects, involvement in these could
lead to an increased role in manned missions to the Moon, Mars and
beyond through the
Global Exploration Strategy. Overall, the report is a very
timely review of the UK's current position in space exploration,
especially now as findings from the British National Space Centre on
its space policy is due to be reported within the next few months.
Top
ATHLETE – the ‘All Terrain Hex Limbed Extra Terrestrial
Explorer’ – is a robotic experiment that JPL at NASA hope to launch
to the moon within the next decade. The hexagonal-shaped vehicle,
which has six individual legs with a wheel at each end, is capable
of roving or walking about on the lunar surface - carrying cargo
like equipment or a small habitat to anywhere it wants to go. While
the wheels can work together in coordination in moderate to hard
terrain, the legs, on the other hand, allows ATHLETE to work in
softer to extreme terrain. Each leg has an additional capability
where power tools like drills or clampers can be attached, which can
then operate off the motor that powers the wheels to roll. When an
interesting area of terrain is seen, ATHLETE can walk or roll upto
it, stop, and then use a different tool on each leg to investigate
it more. Moreover, stereo-cameras on each leg allows close
inspection of the intended target and a more effective way of seeing
what the tool is actually doing. ATHLETE also has six pairs of
stereoscopic cameras suitably located around each face of the
hexagonal-shaped frame; giving the vehicle full panoramic 3D views
everywhere in any direction. ATHLETE is in its prototype stage right
now measuring approximately 3 metres across in diameter, however, a
fully-built version will be upto twice that size when it eventually
gets to land on the moon. Capable of carrying upto twenty tons at a
time, its unique mobility and manipulation capabilities will be of
enormous advantage for establishing the first lunar base – expected
to start sometime around 2020.Top
Dynamic structures like compression
wrinkles and tectonics faults hidden underneath the lunar crust are
slowly being understood, using data from two lunar missions – ESA’s
SMART-1
spacecraft that crashed on the moon in 2006 and NASA’s
Clementine spacecraft that ended in 1994 due to power failure.
High resolution images taken by SMART-1’s AMIE micro-camera and
Clementine’s multi-spectral images taken at various wavelengths in
the visible, ultraviolet and infrared, are determining the tectonics
of the moon's giant basins and the history of volcanic flooding of
mid-sized craters, inside and around the lunar basins. Lunar basins
formed over 3.8 billion years ago when heavy bombardment of the
lunar surface produced huge basin-like craters that fractured the
lithosphere beneath. As the Moon had already cooled, there were no
molten rocks to flood these basins immediately, however,
approximately a billion years later; decay of radioactive elements
deep within the moon’s interior began to heat up mantle material
again. This welled up through the cracks (concentric faults around
the basins) and volcanic vents in the lithosphere, producing a
series of thin, extensive lava sheets that filled the basins. The
fault structures and volcanic vents obviously became covered up
during the process, however, as Clementine’s multi-spectral
instruments could literally ‘see’ these signatures below the
surface, the data could then be combined with AMIE’s surface data to
give an overall explanation of the history of the region. While
SMART-1 crashed onto the Moon on the 3 September 2006 in a region
known as the Lake of Excellence, and Clementine was put into a
geocentric orbit that took it somewhere in through the Van Allen
radiation belts, the data gleaned from both missions will continue
to be analysed for many years yet.
Top
In 2012, the German Aerospace Centre at
DLR hopes to
launch an unmanned mission to the Moon called the ‘Lunar Exploration
Orbiter’ (LEO). The
proposed mission consist of two satellites (a 700 kg main satellite
and 150 kg sub-satellite), and each will fly in formation around the
moon taking simultaneous measurements in several fields. Some of
LEO’s suite of instruments consists of: spectrometers to look at a
broad range of wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum;
microwave and radar experiments to look deep down under the surface
at ancient structures like impacts and ghost craters; and a very
sensitive camera known as SMOSH to detect flash events from impacts
as the happen over the four-year life-long term of the mission. The
instruments also include a magnetometer and gradiometer for
detecting the moon’s relative magnetic and gravity fields; the data
of which will be invaluable for determining aspects about the moon’s
interior. LEO is Germany’s first independent venture into
exploration of the Moon, and the hope is that it will establish the
country as a leader among other space-faring nations; demonstrating
their expertise and technological know-how. As of August 2007, LEO
is currently in its feasibility stage, however, following the
presentation of DLR’s results, a final costed mission proposal will
be presented to the German government this October. The mission was
first proposed at the
European Planetary
Science Congress 2007, held at Potsdam in Germany between 20 and
24 August 2007.
Top
NASA and British company, Surrey
Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL),
have got together to design a lunar orbiter, called Magnolia. The
contract, lasting nine months initially, may result in a new type of
orbiter that NASA might use in the near future, as it searches for
possible signs of water hidden in permanently-shadowed craters on
the Moon. SSTL’s past experience of delivering cost effective
satellite missions within rapid timescales over the last 25 years
will be of enormous benefit to NASA. Having been involved with 27
missions launched todate, SSTL’s design will look at areas of the
propulsion system, the avionics and communications setup for the
orbiter, but not at the scientific instruments side of things as
these will be done elsewhere. While this is the first phase of the
US-UK alliance for designing a lunar orbiter, future phases starting
in 2008 could lead to further involvement of the company’s expertise
in this area. Magnolia is planned to launch sometime around 2012,
but is not the first lunar mission that SSTL, have been involved
with. Last year, the company performed a lunar exploration design
study for PPARC – the UK’s government's Particle Physics and
Astronomy Research Council, now disbanded and merged into
Science & Technology Facilities
Council – on two low cost lunar missions, called MoonLITE and
MoonRaker respectively. MoonLITE involved propelling four small
penetrators with a suite of instruments onboard into the Moon’s
farside surface to take seismic measurements and compositional data.
MoonRaker involved landing a small robotic craft at the Moon’s South
Pole region of the Moon to investigate potential water, oxygen and
hydrogen deposits trapped in the permanent shadows of craters. While
there hasn't been further developments from the UK’s future plans
for these two missions, their potential is still an option, as the
nation gets evermore involved in space exploration.
Top
Four astrophysics proposals by NASA
have been chosen for potential use on the Moon in the near future.
The proposals include two laser-ranging experiments, a small radio
telescope array, and X-ray telescopes for measuring x-ray emissions
from the Sun. The four proposals are called:
(1) A Lunar Laser Ranging Array for the 21st Century
(2) Precision Lunar Laser Ranging
(3) Radio Observatory for Lunar Sortie Science
(4) Lunar-Based Soft X-ray Science
The first two experiments {(1) & (2)} above will be used to
determine accurately the distance from the Moon to the Earth.
Similar-type instruments, called retro-reflectors, have already been
left on the Moon by the Apollo missions back in the 70s -- the data
of which has proved as an invaluable resource for scientific as well
as other studies such as orbital dynamics. The problem with the
Apollo retro-reflectors left behind was that they were clustered too
close together (some within 26 degrees latitude of the equator, with
the most useful ones within 24 degrees longitude of the sub-earth
meridian), which weakened their geometrical strength. These
retro-reflectors, however, will be placed at locations other than
the Apollo sites, which will enable the study of additional effects,
particularly those that rely on the measurement of the lunar
librations, along with submillimetre measurements that will produce
the most accurate Earth-Moon distance todate. The radio telescope
array proposal (3), or ROLSS, will consist of 3 equal-length arms,
500 meters long, which will be laid down on the lunar surface in the
form of a Y. Each arm will have 16 antennas interconnected on strips
of a thin polyimide film, on which radio antennas and transmission
lines are deposited. These strips during transport will be stored as
small rolls, less than 25 cm in diameter and 1 m wide, and would
later be unrolled by astronauts on the surface. The fourth
experiment (4) consist of a series of small, light-weight,
low-power, wide field-of-view soft X-ray telescopes that would be
deployed on the lunar surface. Capable of taking X-ray imaging of
real-time, global views of the solar wind/lunar interaction, the
telescopes will also look at solar wind/Mars and astrosphere/ISM
interactions that in-situ observations cannot achieve at the moment.
An additional advantage is that the telescopes will be outside
Earth's bowshock; giving them the unique vantage point from which to
observe X-ray emission from the Earth's magnetosheath.
Top
The Japanese lunar mission, SELENE
that was to launch later this month has experienced another setback
when inspection of condensers with two smaller satellites onboard
the main orbiter were found to be installed incorrectly. The setback
is nothing new for the engineers at the Japanese Space Agency
(JAXA), as several attempts over the last four years to launch the
probe has been delayed many times. Recently renamed Kaguya in honour
of a Japanese folktale, the problem was not originally discovered on
the smaller satellites themselves but rather on another satellite –
WIND (Wideband Internetworking Engineering Test and Demonstration
Satellite) – which showed reverse polarity on its installed
condensers. As the two smaller satellites (the Relay satellite and
the VRAD satellite) also have similar components, these will now
have to be changed and rechecked – possibly pushing the launch date
into September. See here
for more information about the SELENE mission.
Top
Two robots currently conducting
manoeuvres as they rove around a crater in the Arctic Circle could
someday be doing the same thing on the Moon within the next decade.
The two rovers, called K10 Black and K10 Red, each carry a single
3-D laser-scanner and ground-penetrator onboard, which are able to
map, respectively, features on the surface as far away as 3,280 feet
away and below the ground as deep as 16.4 feet down. Similar in
appearance to craters on the Moon, the rovers are covering
approximately 120 acres of terrain in a crater called Haughton,
close to a facility at Devon Island in Canada (the Haughton Mars
base) – known well for research involving Mars simulation
programmes. The four-wheeled rovers are remotely controlled from the
base using the Global Positioning System, navigating around using
stereo cameras, laser scanners and Sun-trackers. The data gathered
from the experience will be used for future plans to return humans
to the Moon in ~ 2020; establishing a base there that then will act
as a stepping-off point for future endeavours to other planets like
Mars and beyond. The research is being conducted by NASA’s Ames
Intelligent Robotics
Group.
Top
Controlling how a rocket or lunar
lander manoeuvres in space or towards landing on the surface of the
Moon depends very much on how you can control its power output.
Power output in rockets today rely on the fuel it uses – commonly a
mixture of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen – that can generate the
necessary thrust, without loss of performance or over-burdening of
payload requirements that other fuels demand. Recent tests with
NASA’s new engine design – the
Common Extensible Cryogenic
Engine (CECE) – have proven very positive with flexibility over
the mixtures above mentioned, which allow better control over the
throttling capability from full power down to 10 percent of its
thrust. Using a specially-designed bypass valve to direct the
mixtures that drives the propellant into a combustion chamber that
then provides the thrust, the test-firings show an operability
performance of stable combustion to 20 percent power, or a 5-to-1
throttling ratio. While problems related to a chugging and
vibrational effect occur as the percentage is pushed down further,
engineers say modifications in the injector fuel design may allow
stable combustion at a 10-to-1 throttle ratio.
Top
When NASA sets a man on the Moon before
the end of the next decade, the lander they will use will have to be
top of the range. Given the advances in technology design, the new
lander will be lighter but stronger, more adaptable to the
astronauts’ needs and requirements, and have refined power and
structural load requirements for better landing and take-off
manoeuvres. NASA’s lunar lander project team are now holding talks
with well-established designers to see if they can put together the
best possible lander yet; integrating current technical design
knowledge with lessons learned from lunar landers of the Apollo
missions (1969 – 1972). The landers currently being designed will
not only have to be capable of landing the next generation of
astronauts on the surface, but also able to perform unmanned,
rocket-powered manoeuvres for delivery of payloads to the lunar
surface and lunar orbit. As part of NASA’s Centennial Challenge,
competitions are now being organized to get the best design and
designers come up with a lander that will suit all needs. The first
will be held in October 2007 in New Mexico as part of the 2007
Wirefly X-Prize Air and Space Exposition.
Top
According to the ‘giant impact’ theory,
the Moon was created when a Mars-sized object struck a glancing blow
at the early proto-Earth ~ 4.5 billion years ago. The impact ejected
vast amounts of material – both of the Earth and the Mars-sized
object – into orbit around the Earth, which later accreted together
to form the Moon. While the theory has never been proved, research
by scientists from the UK, USA and Switzerland say that they may
have found a possible link between the two bodies to support the
theory. By comparing small isotopic differences in samples taken
from the Earth, meteorites and other planetary materials, such
products may be as a result of processes associated from evaporative
losses when large bodies collide. In particular, the research shows
that basalt material both from the Earth and the Moon contain heavy
forms of silicate isotopic compositions, not seen in other planetary
bodies, for instance, Mars or the asteroid, Vesta. The differences
between these formations are enough to suggest that during the
initial impact, large-scale isotopic equilibrium mixed evenly in
both materials of the early Earth and the Mar-sized object;
resulting in the Moon and Earth having heavy isotopic elements being
the same. For more information see
here.
Top
TLPs, or Transient Lunar Phenomena, are
bright flashes that occasionally are seen to emit in particular
regions on the lunar surface. Generally believed to be caused by
escape of gases through cracks on the surface from deep within the
moon's interior, the exact reason as to why they occur has eluded
scientists for hundreds of years. New research, however, by
astronomers in Columbia University show that a correlation between
radon gas emissions recorded by past spacecrafts may hold the key to
the puzzle. The results the researchers used come mainly from gas
outbursts data recorded by several orbiting spacecrafts,
particularly NASA’s Apollo 15 mission in 1971 and the robotic Lunar
Prospector in 1998. A pattern in the data showed up the correlation,
but it also managed to rid false, unconfirmed reports. The
astronomers aren’t completely sure of the exact composition of the
gas that may be causing the reported flashes, however, from previous
measurements indications are that TLPs in some way may be due to
radon gas mixing with other gases inside the moon. Radon is a
natural radioactive gas that has no taste, smell or colour. It is
found in all soils and rocks to some degree on Earth, and on the
Moon, and is formed in the ground by the radioactive decay of small
amounts of radium which itself is a decay product of uranium. With
so many unconfirmed reports of TLPs by amateurs and professionals
alike, the researchers are now planning to observe the Moon for such
phenomena using a robotic camera on a telescope at the Cerro Tololo
Inter-American Observatory in northern Chile. Capable of scanning
the moon for TLPs every few seconds, hopes are that an unbiased
record could eventually be amassed; producing a confirmed map of
regions of where they most likely occur.
Top
Under NASA’s Lunar Sortie Science
Opportunities (LSSO)
Program to develop new opportunities for science investigation of
the Moon, seven instrument-experiment proposals from over 70
submissions have been chosen. The proposals will compliment two
already existing programs – the Lunar Advanced Science and
Exploration Research (LASER)
Program and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)
Participating Scientist Program – and together, they will increase
lunar knowledge for eventual human settlement on the moon in the
near future. The proposed experiments include: an instrument to
investigate lunar science and hazards relative to seismology and
heat; a mass spectrometer to take volatile measurements by pyrolysis
(breaking down matter into oils, hydrocarbon gas) of the lunar soil;
an experiment to look at the moon’s radiation environment; a science
kit for characterising the different types of lunar soil; and an
instrument to look at lunar dust which creates problems for
astronauts as they work. All studies will eventually result into a
simple, autonomous ‘suitcase science package’ that can be easily
deployed on the surface by astronauts. Existing lunar data taken
during past Apollo and lunar robotic missions will also be supported
under the programs, resulting in a greater understanding about the
origin and evolution of the Moon.Top
In the very near future when a human
presence and lunar base is well established on the Moon, astronomers
could be observing the sky using a very unique telescope made of
liquid. Research carried out by scientists in
Canada, USA and in Northern Ireland, suggests that by coating
ionic liquids with silver and then set the whole lot spinning on a
very large, pan-type structure, the makings for a reflecting
telescope for the Moon could be possible. Liquid telescopes aren’t a
new idea; the Large Zenith Telescope sited in the Malcolm Knapp
Research Forest in Vancouver, Canada, has been operating for awhile
now. It spins mercury on a large 6-metre flat pan that is then able
to produce the correct curvature (a parabola) for focusing light
into a point. The telescope works just like a normal Newtonian
reflecting telescope, except that it can only point straight upwards
in one direction -- its zenith overhead. The mercury works fine for
Earth conditions, however, using it as a liquid base for a similar
type telescope on the lunar surface wouldn’t be possible, as the
extremes of space (temperatures changes, vacuum...etc.,) would
affect its metallic properties. But ionic liquids have the potential
to get past that problem. When combined with other metals and
elements, an ionic liquid telescope could withstand the damaging
extremes; opening up the potential for a future optical telescope
for the Moon. The telescope, when finished, could be up to a
thousand times more sensitive than the current James Webb Space
Telescope, due for launch in 2013.
Top
13 June 2007: Japanese lunar probe gets
August launch date
Japan's space agency
JAXA announced today
that their
SELENE (Selenological and Engineering Explorer) lunar mission
will be launched on 16 August 2007. SELENE (now nicknamed
"Kaguya"
after a Japanese folktale) will use a suite of instruments onboard
to perform a global survey of the Moon and determine aspects about
its surface and interior, such as, its elemental abundance,
minerals, topology and gravity. The data will help in the future
lunar exploration of space and hopefully give some answers about its
evolution and origin. SELENE essentially consists of three separate
satellites: an Orbiter that will go into a tight 100 km (62 miles)
circular orbit around the moon; and two probes that will each go
into lower orbits – the first, a Relay satellite that will study
areas such as the moon’s gravity field on the farside, and the
second, called VRAD, that will measure the position and precession
of the moon. The mission is expected last about a year with possible
extension, but JAXA may afterwards decide to crash-land all three
onto the surface, learning more about the Moon’s regolith (its
soil). The launch will take place at the Yoshinobu Launch Complex at
the Tanegashima Space Centre, and launch window extends from between
17 – 23 August 2007 and 13 – 21 September 2007. (See more about
SELENE here).Top
Following the 3rd joint ESA/ASI
workshop on international cooperation for sustainable space
exploration held in Italy today, the top 14 space agencies from
around the world have published their agreed vision for the Moon,
Mars and beyond. Called “The
Global Exploration Strategy: The Framework for Co-ordination”
(PDF file), chapter 4 of the document indicates scientific
exploration of the Moon involving three types of investigations:
science “of the Moon”, science “from the Moon”, and science “on the
Moon”. Science “of the Moon”, looks to extensive robotic exploration
and sophisticated surveying by humans at sites of high scientific
interest; science “from the Moon”, will take advantage of the moon's
lack of atmosphere and its ‘radio quiet’ environment to provide a
stable platform for observing the universe; while science “on the
Moon”, will investigate the effects of the lunar environment on
robotic instruments, equipment and humans. (See more about future
exploration here).
Top
In a recent study conducted by
geophysicists at the
University of Michigan of past Apollo 15 data concerning the
Moon’s surface temperature, Earth’s current climate system could
benefit by putting temperature stations on the Moon. The Apollo 15
data was initially obtained by temperature probes inserted into the
Moon’s soil (the regolith), which monitored changes in its surface
and subsurface over a period of 41 months (mid 1972 to late 1975).
The data uncovered a lunar night-time warming trend consistent with
a global dimming of Earth due to a general decrease of sunlight over
land surfaces. As the Moon was not affected by atmospheric,
hydrospheric or biospheric complications then (and is not now), the
stations could prove useful for monitoring and predicting climate
changes on Earth, and compliment current ground- and space-based
Earth satellites.
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NASA today released a review on their
Constellation Program, which will eventually create a new space
transportation system to take astronauts into Earth orbit, the Moon,
and Mars. Review of the program, which is mainly responsible for the
Ares launch vehicles, the Orion crew capsule, and ground and
space-based activities, is an on-going assessment of all the above
activities until ready for launch. NASA will be conducting regular
reviews over the next few years: firstly, a review in August 2007 to
see how the Orion system is developing against predicted design
performance; secondly, another significant design review in summer
2008 and, thirdly a critical design review in early 2010. The
Constellation Program is also closely following NASA’s Lunar
Architecture Team, which will eventually formulate requirements for
a lunar surface outpost on the Moon -- the reviews of which are
expected to be out around 2009. On 17 October 2007, Science
Applications International will announce that its subsidiary, Benham
Companies, will be awarded a $51.4 million cost-plus- incentive-fee
contract by NASA to design, engineer and build two testing
facilities. These two new testing facilities and the other
facilities being readied under separate efforts will allow the Orion
spacecraft, consisting of the launch abort system and the crew and
service modules, to undergo thermal- vacuum, acoustic, mechanical
vibration and electromagnetic compatibility evaluations within the
confines of the SPF during development and qualification. These new
testing facilities also will support NASA's Constellation Program's
future spacecraft and other systems required for exploration
missions to the Moon, Mars and other destinations in the solar
system. (See more about the future challenges ahead
here).
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China’s Chang’e-1 spacecraft – their
first to the Moon – is currently set for launch sometime in the last
quarter of 2007. Chang’e-1 is the first of a trio in China’s Moon
exploration program that includes: firstly, observing the Moon from
orbit; secondly, landing a rover on the Moon; and, thirdly,
conducting a sample-retrieval mission to the Moon and returning it
back to Earth again. Chang’e-1 will carry 24 scientific instruments,
including CCD three-dimensional cameras, microprobe instruments and
a high-energy sun particle detector. The China National Space
Administration responsible for the program says that the second
phase will most like see a rover probe on the surface by 2012, later
followed by another rover on the surface that will have capabilities
to launch back to Earth a small capsule with samples of the Moon
inside, sometime around 2020. (See more about Chang'e-1
here).
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During a
European Science Foundation (ESF)-led workshop held in Athens
today 88 scientists from 11 European countries discussed the moon’s
future role for a robust European exploration programme. Two key
requirements for effective exploration will be access to the lunar
surface by establishing outposts on its surface, and a drilling
capability to several hundred metres depth. While both objectives
could essentially be done through robotic means, a human presence
working on the surface, it was advised, would be far better. The
Moon is an ideal target for solar system historians and planetary
research, as its environment preserves a 4 billion year-long record
of events that could answer major questions in geophysics, geology
and planetary science. Of particular interest and uncertainty is the
intriguing question of whether simple organic molecules, or amino
acids, were ever delivered onto the lunar surface by impacting
comets. Such discoveries would not only have far-reaching
consequences for the historical record of events on and under the
lunar surface, but also revolutionise the debate about the origin of
life on Earth and other planets.
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