Chinese spaceclaft rands on moon

[spaminator]

A Chinese lunar probe returns to Earth with the world’s first samples from the far side of the moon
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Huizhong Wu
Published Jun 25, 2024 • 2 minute read

China-Moon-Probe
This China National Space Administration (CNSA) handout image released by Xinhua News Agency, shows the lander-ascender combination of Chang'e-6 probe taken by a mini rover after it landed on the moon surface, June 4, 2024. China's Chang'e 6 probe returned on Earth on Tuesday with rock and soil samples from the little-explored far side of the moon in a global first. The probe landed in northern China on Tuesday afternoon in the Inner Mongolian region. Photo by CNSA /Xinhua via AP, File
BANGKOK (AP) — China’s Chang’e 6 probe returned on Earth with rock and soil samples from the little-explored far side of the moon in a global first.


The probe landed in the Inner Mongolian region in northern China on Tuesday afternoon.

“I now declare that the Chang’e 6 Lunar Exploration Mission achieved complete success,” Zhang Kejian, Director of the China National Space Administration, said in a televised news conference after the landing.

Chinese scientists anticipate the returned samples will include 2.5 million-year-old volcanic rock and other material that scientists hope will answer questions about geographic differences on the moon’s two sides.

The near side is what is seen from Earth, and the far side faces outer space. The far side is also known to have mountains and impact craters, contrasting with the relatively flat expanses visible on the near side.


The probe had landed in the moon’s South Pole-Aitken Basin, an impact crater created more than 4 billion years ago. The samples scientists are expecting will likely come from different layers of the basin, which will bear traces of the different geological events across its long chronology, such as when the moon was younger and had an active inside that could produce volcanic rock.

While past U.S. and Soviet missions have collected samples from the moon’s near side, the Chinese mission was the first that has collected samples from the far side.

“This is a global first in the sense that it’s the first time anyone has been able to take off from the far side of the moon and bring back samples,” said Richard de Grijs, a professor of astrophysics at Macquarie University in Australia.


The moon program is part of a growing rivalry with the U.S. _ still the leader in space exploration — and others, including Japan and India. China has put its own space station in orbit and regularly sends crews there.

China’s leader Xi Jinping sent a message of congratulations to the Chang’e team, saying that it was a “landmark achievement in our country’s efforts at becoming a space and technological power.”

The probe left earth on May 3, and its journey lasted 53 days. The probe has drilled into the core and scooped rocks from the surface.

The samples “are expected to answer one of the most fundamental scientific questions in lunar science research: what geologic activity is responsible for the differences between the two sides?” said Zongyu Yue, a geologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in a statement issued in the Innovation Monday, a journal published in partnership with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.


China in recent years has launched multiple successful missions to the moon, collecting samples from the moon’s near side with the Chang’e 5 probe previously.

They are also hoping that the probe will return with material that bear traces of meteorite strikes from the moon’s past. That material could shed light on the solar system’s early days. There’s a theory that the moon acted as a vaccum cleaner of sorts, attracting all the meteorites and debris in the system’s earlier era so that they didn’t hit Earth, said de Grijs, who is also executive director at the International Space Science Institute — Beijing.

China has said it plans to share the samples with international scientists, although it did not say exactly in which countries.

A Chinese lunar probe returns to Earth with the world’s first samples from the far side of the moon

The probe landed in the Inner Mongolian region in northern China on Tuesday afternoon.

torontosun.com

 

[spaminator]

China reportedly developing Death Star-like weapon to blast satellites from space
Author of the articleostmedia News
Published Nov 10, 2024 • 2 minute read

So much for a galaxy far, far away.


Chinese scientists have reportedly been developing a Death Star-esque space weapon that would use electromagnetic pulses to knock enemy satellites out of the sky, according to the Daily Mail.

While it won’t be powerful enough to reduce Earth to space dust — like the fictional planet Alderaan in the original Star Wars movie — the scientists have been able to combine multiple pulses of microwave radiation into a single powerful beam, the Daily Mail reported, citing the South China Morning Post.

“The weapon has now completed experimental trials for potential military applications thanks to breakthroughs in ‘ultrahigh-time precision synchronization,'” the Daily Mail reported. “This could be used for ‘achieving multiple goals such as teaching and training, new technology verification and military exercises,'” experts say.

“While the exact details of the weapon remain highly classified, Chinese academic journals suggest that microwave weapons like this are being developed for use in space.”

To wrap your head around the concept, think of the Death Star laser beam used to destroy Alderaan in A New Hope and vapourize rebel spaceships in Return of the Jedi. Seven electromagnetic pulses would merge into a single beam — but only if they all hit the exact same target within 170 trillionths of a second, according to the Daily Mail.



The feat was thought to be nearly impossible, the Daily Mail reported, because the technology exceeds the preciseness of atomic clocks on advanced GPS satellites. The atomic clock aboard China’s Tiangong space station, for example, is so precise that it is expected to only miss one second every few billion years, according to the Daily Mail.

“However, Chinese scientists say they have now been able to overcome these challenges by connecting each of the vehicles with fibreoptic cables,” they added, which would make the beam powerful enough to overwhelm satellites.


The revelation comes as militaries around the globe continue to tinker with direct energy weapon technology, which forgoes projectiles and explosives for powerful blasts of electromagnetic radiation.

The U.K. has been developing a Dragonfire laser weapon, the Daily Mail said, which can reportedly blast a drone out of the air and is accurate enough to hit a British one-pound coin from almost a kilometre away.

The U.S. air force’s Tactical High-Power Operational Responder (THOR) can also use “wide bursts of energy” to take out multiple drones.

No need for The Force, we guess.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1431324544581652480

Chinese scientists build 'real life DEATH STAR': Here's how it works

Chinese scientists claim to have created a 'real-life Death Star' capable of devastating enemy satellites in orbit.

dailymail.co.uk

China reportedly developing Death Star-like weapon to blast satellites from space

While it won't be powerful enough to reduce Earth to space dust, scientists have been able to combine microwaves into a powerful beam.

torontosun.com

 

[spaminator]

The far side of the moon once had erupting volcanoes too
Lunar soil was brought back by China's Chang'e-6

Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Adithi Ramakrishnan
Published Nov 15, 2024 • 1 minute read

This China National Space Administration (CNSA) handout image released by Xinhua News Agency, shows the lander-ascender combination of Chang'e-6 probe taken by a mini rover after it landed on the moon surface, June 4, 2024.
This China National Space Administration (CNSA) handout image released by Xinhua News Agency, shows the lander-ascender combination of Chang'e-6 probe taken by a mini rover after it landed on the moon surface, June 4, 2024. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — Volcanoes were erupting on the mysterious far side of the moon billions of years ago just like on the side that we can see, new research confirms.


Researchers analyzed lunar soil brought back by China’s Chang’e-6, the first spacecraft to return with a haul of rocks and dirt from the little-explored far side.

Two separate teams found fragments of volcanic rock that were about 2.8 billion years old. One piece was even more ancient, dating back to 4.2 billion years.

“To obtain a sample from this area is really important because it’s an area that otherwise we have no data for,” said Christopher Hamilton, a planetary volcano expert at the University of Arizona who was not involved with the research.

Scientists know there were active volcanoes on the near side, the part of the moon seen from Earth, dating back to a similar time frame. Previous studies, including data from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, suggested the far side might also have a volcanic past. The first samples from that region facing away from Earth confirm an active history.


The results were published Friday in the journals Nature and Science.

China has launched several spacecraft to the moon. In 2020, the Chang’e-5 spacecraft returned moon rocks from the near side, the first since those collected by NASA’s Apollo astronauts and Soviet Union spacecraft in the 1970s. The Chang’e-4 spacecraft became the first to visit the moon’s far side in 2019.

The moon’s far side is pockmarked by craters and has fewer of the near side’s flat, dark plains carved by lava flows. Why the two halves are so different remains a mystery, said study co-author Qiu-Li Li from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Li said the new findings reveal over 1 billion years of volcanic eruptions on the lunar far side. Future research will determine how the activity lasted so long.

The far side of the moon once had erupting volcanoes too

Lunar soil was brought by China's Chang'e-6, the first spacecraft to return with a haul of rocks and dirt from the little-explored far side.

torontosun.com

 

[spaminator]

Private lunar lander from Japan crashes into moon in failed mission
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Marcia Dunn
Published Jun 05, 2025 • Last updated 1 day ago • 4 minute read

This image provided by ispace, inc. shows the Resilience lander circling the moon, Wednesday June 4, 2025.
This image provided by ispace, inc. shows the Resilience lander circling the moon, Wednesday June 4, 2025. Photo by ispace, inc. via AP /AP
A private lunar lander from Japan crashed while attempting a touchdown Friday, the latest casualty in the commercial rush to the moon.


The Tokyo-based company ispace declared the mission a failure several hours after communication was lost with the lander. Flight controllers scrambled to gain contact, but were met with only silence and said they were concluding the mission.


Communications ceased less than two minutes before the spacecraft’s scheduled landing on the moon with a mini rover. Until then, the descent from lunar orbit seemed to be going well.

CEO and founder Takeshi Hakamada apologized to everyone who contributed to the mission, the second lunar strikeout for ispace.

This image taken from video shows ispace CEO and founder Takeshi Hakamada speaking before a private lunar lander attempt on the moon Friday, June 6, 2025.
This image taken from video shows ispace CEO and founder Takeshi Hakamada speaking before a private lunar lander attempt on the moon Friday, June 6, 2025. Photo by ispace via AP /AP
Two years ago, the company’s first moonshot ended in a crash landing, giving rise to the name “Resilience” for its successor lander. Resilience carried a rover with a shovel to gather lunar dirt as well as a Swedish artist’s toy-size red house for placement on the moon’s dusty surface.


Company officials said it was too soon to know whether the same problem doomed both missions.

“This is the second time that we were not able to land. So we really have to take it very seriously,” Hakamada told reporters. He stressed that the company would press ahead with more lunar missions.

A preliminary analysis indicates the laser system for measuring the altitude did not work as planned, and the lander descended too fast, officials said. “Based on these circumstances, it is currently assumed that the lander likely performed a hard landing on the lunar surface,” the company said in a written statement.

Long the province of governments, the moon became a target of private outfits in 2019, with more flops than wins along the way.


Launched in January from Florida on a long, roundabout journey, Resilience entered lunar orbit last month. It shared a SpaceX ride with Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost, which reached the moon faster and became the first private entity to successfully land there in March.

Another U.S. company, Intuitive Machines, arrived at the moon a few days after Firefly. But the tall, spindly lander face-planted in a crater near the moon’s south pole and was declared dead within hours.

Resilience was targeting the top of the moon, a less treacherous place than the shadowy bottom. The ispace team chose a flat area with few boulders in Mare Frigoris or Sea of Cold, a long and narrow region full of craters and ancient lava flows that stretches across the near side’s northern tier.


Plans had called for the 7.5-foot (2.3-metre) Resilience to beam back pictures within hours and for the lander to lower the piggybacking rover onto the lunar surface this weekend.

Made of carbon fiber-reinforced plastic with four wheels, ispace’s European-built rover — named Tenacious — sported a high-definition camera to scout out the area and a shovel to scoop up some lunar dirt for NASA.

The rover, weighing just 11 pounds (5 kilograms), was going to stick close to the lander, going in circles at a speed of less than one inch (a couple centimetres) per second. It was capable of venturing up to two-thirds of a mile (1 kilometre) from the lander and should be operational throughout the two-week mission, the period of daylight.


Besides science and tech experiments, there was an artistic touch.

The rover held a tiny, Swedish-style red cottage with white trim and a green door, dubbed the Moonhouse by creator Mikael Genberg, for placement on the lunar surface.

Minutes before the attempted landing, Hakamada assured everyone that ispace had learned from its first failed mission. “Engineers did everything they possibly could” to ensure success this time, he said.

He considered the latest moonshot “merely a steppingstone” to its bigger lander launching by 2027 with NASA involvement.

Ispace, like other businesses, does not have “infinite funds” and cannot afford repeated failures, Jeremy Fix, chief engineer for ispace’s U.S. subsidiary, said at a conference last month.


While not divulging the cost of the current mission, company officials said it’s less than the first one which exceeded $100 million.

Two other U.S. companies are aiming for moon landings by year’s end: Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and Astrobotic Technology. Astrobotic’s first lunar lander missed the moon altogether in 2024 and came crashing back through Earth’s atmosphere.

For decades, governments competed to get to the moon. Only five countries have pulled off successful robotic lunar landings: Russia, the U.S., China, India and Japan. Of those, only the U.S. has landed people on the moon: 12 NASA astronauts from 1969 through 1972.

NASA expects to send four astronauts around the moon next year. That would be followed a year or more later by the first lunar landing by a crew in more than a half-century, with SpaceX’s Starship providing the lift from lunar orbit all the way down to the surface. China also has moon landing plans for its own astronauts by 2030.

— The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Private lunar lander from Japan crashes into moon in failed mission

A private lunar lander from Japan crashed while attempting a touchdown Friday, the latest casualty in the commercial rush to the moon.

torontosun.com