Unmanned Lunar Missions

[Sandhi Yudha]

Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) is a lunar lander developed by the JAXA and was successfully launched on 7 September 2023 08:42 Japan Standard Time with a H-IIA rocket. It carries two rovers with it, the Lunar Excursion Vehicle 1 and 2. SLIM was launched together with the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) space telescope.

Japan joins race to Moon with successful rocket launch

Japan's H-IIA rocket carrying the national space agency's moon lander launched from the Tanegashima Space Center on 7 September

www.bbc.com

小型月着陸実証機 SLIM | ISAS/JAXA

www.isas.jaxa.jp

 

[Sandhi Yudha]

This Japanese private spaceflight company ispace has unveiled a mini rover that will fly on its next moon landing mission next year.
The tiny robot will carry an HD camera and a shovel.

The micro rover will be launched in winter 2024 inside the payload bay at the top of ispace's Mission 2 lander, if all goes according to plan.

Japan's ispace unveils micro rover for its 2nd moon mission

The tiny robot will carry an HD camera and a shovel.

www.space.com

And here an overview of India's future plans on missions to the Moon.

After Chandrayaan-3 success, India gearing up for moon sample-return mission

'Hopefully, in the next five to seven years, we will be able to meet this challenge.'

www.space.com

 

[Sandhi Yudha]

Peregrine Mission One, or the Peregrine Lunar Lander flight 01, is a lunar lander built by Astrobotic Technology, selected as a part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS). It was launched yesterday by United Launch Alliance (ULA) aboard a Vulcan Centaur. This was the first launch of the Vulcan Centaur. The lander carries multiple payloads, with a total payload mass capacity of 90 kg. It is the first US-built lunar lander launched since the crewed Apollo 17.

Astrobotic's Peregrine moonlander is now on its way to the Moon, but it got some technical problems after the launch. It seems that Peregrine isn't able yet to align the solarpanels into the right direction.

Private Peregrine moon lander suffers 'critical' fuel loss after launch, mission at risk

Peregrine likely won't be the first private spacecraft to touch down on the moon.

www.space.com

Here some background information.

If they don't fix the problem on time, the Peregrine mission will be as successful as Luna 25.

 

[Sandhi Yudha]

Update, Peregrine is still alive, but it is running out of power.

More updates will follow.


Update:
It seems that the Peregrine spacecraft's propulsion anomaly is caused by a valve between the helium pressurant and the oxidizer that failed to reseal after actuation during initialization.

Stuck valve may have doomed private Peregrine moon lander mission, Astrobotic says

The current hypothesis is that a valve failed to reseal properly, leading to a ruptured oxidizer tank.

www.space.com

Update (14-01-2024)
There is a very big chance that in the coming days Peregrine will enter the Earth atmosphere and burn up while doing this.

Geplaagde commerciële maanlander verbrandt waarschijnlijk in atmosfeer

Peregrine kampt sinds de lancering afgelopen maandag met een brandstoflek. Het was al duidelijk dat een maanlanding er niet meer in zat.

nos.nl

 

[Sandhi Yudha]

The Peregrine One Moonlander mission is now officially ended with the disintegration and burning up of the spacecraft in Earth's atmosphere.

Why the Peregrine moon lander was burned up in Earth's atmosphere

An attempt to land on the moon has ended in failure – Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander was brought back to Earth to burn up as it plummeted through the atmosphere

www.newscientist.com

Commerciële Amerikaanse maanlander verbrand, Japan hoopt vanmiddag op meer geluk

Door een brandstoflek lukte het Astrobotic niet de maan te halen. Vanmiddag probeert Japan het vijfde land te worden dat er wel in slaagt.

nos.nl

But today JAXA wants to land its own moonlander on the Moon, the SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon).
If SLIM succeeds to safely land on the Moon, then Japan will become the 5th country after the Soviet-Union/Russia, US, Chinaand India doing this.

 

[ngatimozart]

The Peregrine One Moonlander mission is now officially ended with the disintegration and burning up of the spacecraft in Earth's atmosphere.

Why the Peregrine moon lander was burned up in Earth's atmosphere

An attempt to land on the moon has ended in failure – Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander was brought back to Earth to burn up as it plummeted through the atmosphere

www.newscientist.com

Commerciële Amerikaanse maanlander verbrand, Japan hoopt vanmiddag op meer geluk

Door een brandstoflek lukte het Astrobotic niet de maan te halen. Vanmiddag probeert Japan het vijfde land te worden dat er wel in slaagt.

nos.nl

But today JAXA wants to land its own moonlander on the Moon, the SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon).
If SLIM succeeds to safely land on the Moon, then Japan will become the 5th country after the Soviet-Union/Russia, US, Chinaand India doing this.

The JAXA SLIM lander successfully landed but has struck power problems. It apparently can't generate power so is relying on its batteries, which won't last long. Regardless, they have a significant achievement with the successful landing. Moon landings are very difficult.
Japan makes soft landing on the moon, but lander has a power problem : NPR

 

[Sandhi Yudha]

SLIM-update.

SLIM has landed on the Moon in a wrong position, which is the cause of the power shortage. But the good news is that the landing was only meters away from the planned spot. A real historic achievement.

Another good news is that one of it rovers made a photo of SLIM. The photo, which the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) released on Wednesday night (24 Jan), was taken by a ball-shaped robot called LEV-2 ("Lunar Exploration Vehicle-2") also known as SORA-Q, one of two tiny rovers that flew to the moon aboard SLIM.

Japan's SLIM moon lander photographed on the lunar surface — on its nose (image)

The tiny LEV-2 rover, one of SLIM's traveling companions, took the historic photo.

www.space.com

Japanse maanlander heel precies neergekomen, maar wel op z'n kant

Ruimtevaartagentschap JAXA had gepland om SLIM binnen 100 meter van de aangewezen landingsplek neer te zetten en dat is gelukt.

nos.nl

 

[Masquerader]

Last February, the IM-1 became the first privately-funded US-built lunar lander to make a smooth moon landing:

Intuitive Machines and NASA call IM-1 lunar lander a success as mission winds down

NASA and Intuitive Machines declared the IM-1 mission, in its final hours, an “unqualified success” despite a hard landing that left the spacecraft askew.

spacenews.com

 

[Sandhi Yudha]

Some recent Moon-news.


China’s Chang’e-6 lunar module has returned to Earth on Tuesday 25 June, successfully completing its historic mission to collect the first ever samples from the far side of the moon in a major step forward for the country’s ambitious space program.

Chang'e 6 is the sixth robotic lunar exploration mission by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) and the second CNSA lunar sample-return mission, which is the Chang'e 5. It is humanity's first lunar mission to retrieve samples from the far side of the Moon, as all previous collective sample-return missions were done from the near side.

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/06/25/china/china-change-6-moon-mission-return-scn-intl-hnk/index.html

NASA has announced on Wednesday (17 July) its intent to discontinue the VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) project.

The rover would have been tasked with prospecting for lunar resources in permanently shadowed areas in the lunar south pole region, especially by mapping the distribution and concentration of water ice. The mission is built on an also cancelled NASA rover concept called Resource Prospector. That program was cancelled in 2018.

Multiple cost increases/escalations and delays has led to this cancellation. The rover is planned to be sold or disassembled and its instruments and components reused for other lunar missions.
NASA expects to save $84 million by canceling the mission, which has cost $450 million so far.

NASA Ends VIPER Project, Continues Moon Exploration - NASA

Following a comprehensive internal review, NASA announced Wednesday its intent to discontinue development of its VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar

www.nasa.gov