- Chandrayaan-3 mission nears final landing as Vikram lander set to begin separate journey today |WION WION
- Delivered: Chandrayaan-3’s Lander Module Successfully Separates from Propulsion Module | Weather.com The Weather Channel
- Chandrayaan-3 successfully undergoes final lunar orbit manoeuvre; lander to separate on Aug 17 The Economic Times
- Chandrayaan 3 Update: Last Lunar Manoeuvre Done, Expert Forecasts Propulsion Module Milestone The Indian Express
- Chandrayaan-3 In It’s Last Leg Of Journey To The Moon: Lander To Separate From Mothership India Today
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Tag Archives: lander
Chandrayaan-3 closer to Moon, Lander set for separation today – The Indian Express
- Chandrayaan-3 closer to Moon, Lander set for separation today The Indian Express
- Chandrayaan-3 successfully undergoes final lunar orbit manoeuvre; lander to separate on Aug 17 The Economic Times
- What is the current status of Chandrayaan-3? Latest updates explored as spacecraft prepares for separation PINKVILLA
- ‘High five from Chandrayaan-3’: Spacecraft completes fifth and final lunar bound manoeuvre The Tribune
- India’s Chandrayaan-3 moves closer to moon, lander to separate tomorrow Gulf News
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Chandrayaan-3 Attains Intended Orbit! Lander Vikram to Separate From Spacecraft Tomorrow | Weather.com – The Weather Channel
- Chandrayaan-3 Attains Intended Orbit! Lander Vikram to Separate From Spacecraft Tomorrow | Weather.com The Weather Channel
- Chandrayaan-3 successfully undergoes final lunar orbit manoeuvre; lander to separate on Aug 17 The Economic Times
- What is the current status of Chandrayaan-3? Latest updates explored as spacecraft prepares for separation PINKVILLA
- ‘High five from Chandrayaan-3’: Spacecraft completes fifth and final lunar bound manoeuvre The Tribune
- India’s Chandrayaan-3 moves closer to moon, lander to separate tomorrow Gulf News
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Private Peregrine moon lander completes prelaunch testing
A private U.S. moon lander just cleared a big hurdle on the path toward its debut spaceflight this year.
The Peregrine lunar lander, built by Astrobotic, finished the last of its space qualification tests this month, the Pittsburgh-based company announced on Wednesday (Jan. 25). Now engineers are awaiting approval from United Launch Alliance (ULA) to ship Peregrine from Pittsburgh to Florida for mating to its United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan Centaur rocket.
“These tests ultimately proved the quality of Peregrine’s design and workmanship,” Sharad Bhaskaran, Astrobotic’s mission director for Peregrine’s debut mission, said in a statement (opens in new tab). “Everyone worked diligently, even through holidays, for this incredible achievement.”
Peregrine’s launch is targeted for the first quarter of 2023 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, but like all launch dates, that is subject to change depending on technical matters, weather and numerous other factors. The mission, the first liftoff for the new Vulcan Centaur, represents a new generation of moon efforts by private companies.
Related: NASA’s full plate of moon missions before astronauts can go
The Peregrine lander, laden with 11 NASA payloads, was selected for service through the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. NASA is employing private robotic landers, rovers and other spacecraft to work alongside Artemis program astronauts, who may be landing near the moon’s south pole as soon as 2025 on the Artemis 3 mission.
CLPS represents a new form of lunar exploration, as all successful moon landing efforts to date have been led by countries rather than private companies. But that is expected to change in a big way in the 2020s, as numerous missions are in development in the United States and in other countries.
The first few CLPS missions will be survey efforts ahead of landing astronauts, with future ones expected to be located at the lunar south pole as NASA builds up infrastructure for possible permanent settlement there. (The south pole appears to be rich in water ice, presenting an ideal spot for water-hungry machinery and astronauts as they could mine the precious resource locally instead of shipping it all the way from Earth.)
Which CLPS mission will arrive at the moon first isn’t yet clear, as numerous efforts are scheduled in the coming months. Besides Peregrine, Intuitive Machines plans to launch its Nova-C lander in the first quarter of 2023, for example.
Meanwhile, another country has a private mission already en route to the moon: The Hakuto-R lander, built by Tokyo-based company ispace, is scheduled to touch down in April. After it lands, Hakuto-R will deploy Rashid, a small rover provided by the United Arab Emirates’ space agency.
Elizabeth Howell is the co-author of “Why Am I Taller (opens in new tab)?” (ECW Press, 2022; with Canadian astronaut Dave Williams), a book about space medicine. Follow her on Twitter @howellspace (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or Facebook (opens in new tab).
Mars InSight lander sends bittersweet goodbye selfie after 4 years of revealing the Red Planet’s mysteries
Update: Shortly after this article was published, NASA confirmed it was unable to contact the Mars InSight lander (opens in new tab) on two consecutive attempts, ending the four-year mission on the planet’s surface.
Twilight is closing in on NASA’s Mars InSight lander — a robotic seismology lab that has been studying the interior workings of the Red Planet since November 2018.
On Tuesday (Dec. 20), NASA announced in a statement (opens in new tab) that InSight failed to respond to routine communications from Earth. This is an alarming, though unsurprising, sign that InSight may finally be dead after months of declining power supplies.
“My power’s really low, so this may be the last image I can send,” the official InSight Twitter account (opens in new tab) tweeted on Dec. 19 along with a dust-covered selfie. “Don’t worry about me though: my time here has been both productive and serene. If I can keep talking to my mission team, I will — but I’ll be signing off here soon. Thanks for staying with me.”
The solar panels that InSight relies on for power have been continuously showered with dust and dirt over the last four years, gradually reducing its available energy. Things were so dire this summer that NASA turned off all of InSight’s science instruments except its seismometer, so that the ailing lander could focus on its primary mission objective — listening for Marsquakes in order to study the Martian interior — for as long as possible.
NASA will officially declare the InSight mission over if the lander fails to respond to a second consecutive communication session. After that, the 25-to-30-person operations team will wrap up the mission by making sure InSight’s four years of data are properly stored and made readily accessible for researchers around the world to use.
InSight touched down on Mars’ Elysium Planitia — a flat, volcanically active plain that straddles the Martian equator — on Nov. 26, 2018. Using a robotic arm, the lander deployed a small seismometer (a device used to measure seismic waves generated by quakes and impacts) onto the plain, then covered it with a dome-shaped heat and wind shield. Since then, InSight has detected more than 1,300 Marsquakes — the largest of which was a whopping magnitude 4.7 temblor on May 4, 2022.
Studying this seismic data has already helped scientists map the mysterious interior of Mars, detect the most massive meteor impact ever recorded in the solar system and show that volcanic activity on the Red Planet could lead to a hidden source of liquid water.
With four years’ worth of data to pore over, scientists around the world will likely use InSight’s insights to uncover the mysteries of Mars for many years to come. Farewell, sweet robot.
NASA InSight lander records largest quake on Mars ever, scientists say
NASA’s InSight Mars Lander has recorded its biggest quake on Mars ever.
According to new research published in the American Geophysical Union (AGU) journal Geophysical Research Letters, the international team said on the Earth night of May 4, the lander’s seismometer detected a quake that was at least five times as big as the next largest one recorded on the red planet.
“This was definitely the biggest marsquake that we have seen,” Taichi Kawamura, lead author and planetary scientist at the Institut de physique du globe de Paris, France, said in a release.
Co-author and seismologist John Clinton, of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich, said the energy released by the single marsquake is equivalent with the cumulative energy from all other marsquakes seen thus far.
NASA’S MARS LANDER INSIGHT TRANSMITS POTENTIAL FINAL IMAGE OF THE RED PLANET AS ITS POWER DWINDLES
Clinton, who is a co-leader with Kawamura at the marsquake service, said the waves recorded at InSight were so big that they almost saturated the seismometer.
A view of Mars from NASA’s Mars InSight Lander.
(NASA/Twitter)
The waves from the marsquake last for about 10 hours.
No previous marsquake’s waves had exceeded the length of an hour.
The previous biggest tremor, recorded in August 2021, was around a magnitude of 4.2, while the May quake had a magnitude of 4.7.
The epicenter of the quake was outside the most seismically active region on Mars.
This seismic event was also rare in that it exhibited characteristics of both high- and low-frequency quakes.
The domed seismometer on NASA’s InSight Lander measured Mars’s largest quake.
(NASA/JPL-Caltech.)
The data from this large quake were released in October by the Mars Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) data service, NASA Planetary Data System (PDS) and the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS), together with the marsquake service catalog.
IMAGE FROM NASA’S WEBB TELESCOPE REVEALS EARLY STELLAR FORMATION IN ‘RARE’ FIND
Seismology on Mars can help researchers better understand what’s underneath its surface and its evolution.
Most marsquakes are believed to occur due to fault movements.
This image shows InSight’s domed Wind and Thermal Shield, which covers its seismometer, called Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure, or SEIS.
(NASA/JPL-Caltech)
InSight is thought to be near its operational end because dust has progressively covered its solar panels and reduced its power.
“We are impressed that almost at the end of the extended mission, we had this very remarkable event,” Kawamura said.
Based on the data gathered from the marsquake, “I would say this mission was an extraordinary success,” he continued.
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“My power’s really low, so this may be the last image I can send. Don’t worry about me though: my time here has been both productive and serene. If I can keep talking to my mission team, I will – but I’ll be signing off here soon,” Insight’s 25-30 person team posted to the lander’s Twitter on Monday. “Thanks for staying with me.”
Since it landed in November 2018, the lander has provided insight on Mars’ liquid core and the composition of its other interior layers. It has detected hundreds of quakes.
Fox News’ Paul Best contributed to this report.
Game Over for NASA’s InSight Mars Lander?
NASA InSight Mars Lander’s last image? Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
We have known for a while that the end was near for NASA’s Mars InSight lander, as the spacecraft’s power supply continued to dwindle from windblown dust accumulating on its solar panels. Now, it seems that day has come. The
My power’s really low, so this may be the last image I can send. Don’t worry about me though: my time here has been both productive and serene. If I can keep talking to my mission team, I will – but I’ll be signing off here soon. Thanks for staying with me. https://t.co/wkYKww15kQ
This was followed by a Tweet from the NASA
Update on @NASAInSight: On Dec. 18, the Mars lander did not respond to communications from Earth. Power has been declining for months, as expected, and this may mean the end of operations for the spacecraft. The team will try again to contact InSight. https://t.co/PsDaWokb9Z https://t.co/ZVACs9EgmB
NASA’s Mars Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission launched on May 5, 2018, from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. After a 300-million-mile journey to Mars, InSIght touched down on the Red Planet near the equator on the western side of a flat, smooth expanse of lava called Elysium Planitia on November 26.
The mission’s science goals were to uncover how a rocky body forms and evolves to become a planet by investigating the interior structure and composition of Mars and to determine the rate of Martian tectonic activity and meteorite impacts. InSIght achieved its primary science goals in its first Martian year (~2 Earth years), and NASA extended its mission to focus on producing a long-duration, high-quality seismic dataset.
During its time on Mars, InSight’s seismometer felt multiple meteor impacts, detected more than 1,300 marsquakes, and shed new light on the Red Planet’s interior: