Weekly - Japan becomes 5th country to land on the moon and more
Weekly Space News - Quick and Easy
Japan becomes 5th country to land on the moon
Last week, JAPAN’s Moon Sniper mission successfully landed on the moon, making Japan the 5th country to land on the moon. The mission was launched last September (2023) and took nearly 4 months to finally land on the moon. In comparison, Chandrayaan-3 took 40 days. Moon Sniper landed near the Shioli crater located on the near side of the moon (the part visible to us). The mission was not a complete success, however. It was found that the lander’s solar panels were not generating power. The lander is now running on battery power. This has significantly reduced the mission life. Experts believe that the problem will be resolved as the angle of the sun changes.
NASA conducts laser experiment on moon
Remember Vikram, Chandrayaan-3’s lander? Turns out it is playing an important role even today. One of its payloads, the Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA) which was an experiment by NASA, is finally coming into use. The LRA is a device that reflects laser lights directly back to the source. Since this device requires no power, it is still functioning onboard Vikram. Last week, NASA used one of their spacecraft orbiting the moon called the LRO to bounce a laser pulse off the LRA. The data received from the laser after it bounced back, showed that the LRA was working just fine. This device will be used as a marker on the moon for crafts to find their location. It marks a new method of accurately locating an object on the moon.
Ingenuity loses contact with earth
Last week, NASA lost contact with its Ingenuity mars helicopter during its 72nd flight. Contact was lost with the craft just moments before its touchdown at the end of its flight. Since the perseverence rover is the only mode of communications to the helicopter, the issue was caused by the craft losing contact with the rover. NASA announced that they just regained communications with the rover today. This is not the first time this is happenning. Previously, NASA lost contact with the rover and it took 2 months to reestablish it.
