Moon: Mysterious rocket crash baffles scientists

Tecumsehsbones

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This is very good news. We need to colonize the moon permanently and set up industry there. With a gravity well only 1/6 as deep as Earth's and no atmosphere, it's the ideal launch platform.
 
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Wise

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That is interesting. The future will sure have a lot of space junk in outer space. The moon will have many explosions on it.

 

Wise

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This is very good news. We need to colonize the moon permanently and set up industry there. With a gravity well only 1/6 as deep as Earth's and no atmosphere, it's the ideal launch platform.
Gravity is ideal to play sports with even higher jumps like basketball. You could really jump and hang in the air a long time. You could jump a lot higher. Probably, it would be less painful to land on the ground after jumping. It is indeed good for launching ships into outer space.
 

spaminator

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South Korean spacecraft launched to the moon
The country plans to land its own spacecraft on the moon -- a robotic probe -- by 2030 or so.

Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Marcia Dunn
Publishing date:Aug 05, 2022 • 2 days ago • 2 minute read • Join the conversation
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter, or KPLO, lifts off from launch complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter, or KPLO, lifts off from launch complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022. PHOTO BY JOHN RAOUX /AP
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — South Korea joined the stampede to the moon Thursday with the launch of a lunar orbiter that will scout out future landing spots.


The satellite launched by SpaceX is taking a long, roundabout path to conserve fuel and will arrive in December.

If successful, it will join spacecraft from the U.S. and India already operating around the moon, and a Chinese rover exploring the moon’s far side.

India, Russia and Japan have new moon missions launching later this year or next, as do a slew of private companies in the U.S. and elsewhere. And NASA is next up with the debut of its mega moon rocket in late August.

South Korea’s $180 million mission — the country’s first step in lunar exploration — features a boxy, solar-powered satellite designed to skim just 62 miles (100 kilometers) above the lunar surface. Scientists expect to collect geologic and other data for at least a year from this low polar orbit.


It is South Korea’s second shot at space in six weeks.

In June, South Korea successfully launched a package of satellites into orbit around Earth for the first time using its own rocket. The first try last fall fizzled, with the test satellite failing to reach orbit.

And in May, South Korea joined a NASA-led coalition to explore the moon with astronauts in the coming years and decades. NASA is targeting the end of this month for the first launch in its Artemis program. The goal is to send an empty crew capsule around the moon and back to test the systems before a crew climbs aboard in two years.

Danuri — Korean for “enjoy the moon” — is carrying six science instruments, including a camera for NASA. It’s designed to peer into the permanently shadowed, ice-filled craters at the lunar poles. NASA favors the lunar south pole for future astronaut outposts because of evidence of frozen water.


South Korea plans to land its own spacecraft on the moon — a robotic probe — by 2030 or so.

“Danuri is just the beginning,” Sang-Ryool Lee, president of the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, said in the SpaceX launch webcast.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket carrying Danuri took off from Cape Canaveral close to sunset. The first-stage booster — making its sixth flight — landed on an ocean platform several minutes later for further recycling.

It was the third spaceshot of the day from the U.S.

United Launch Alliance kicked things off at sunrise in Florida, launching an Atlas V rocket with an infrared missile-detection satellite for the U.S. Space Force. Then Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin rocket company sent six passengers on a quick ride to space from West Texas.

Across the world, the company Rocket Lab launched a small classified satellite from New Zealand for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office.
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Wise

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WITH THE ARTEMIS 1 mission certainly scheduled to blast off in a few weeks, NASA is poised to return to the moon for the first time in half a century. It’s a major step in a formidable plan to launch new spacecraft, assemble a lunar space station, and bring humans back to the moon for the first time since the end of the Apollo program, when astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt were the last people to set foot on the dusty regolith.

Artemis 1 will mark the inaugural launch of a 32-story rocket called the Space Launch System, topped by the Orion space capsule. The capsule will fly within 62 miles of the lunar surface, while deploying small spacecraft for research on "and beyond" the moon. Although this first flight will be uncrewed, others with astronauts will follow in the coming years, and Orion is capable of carrying humans farther than any spacecraft has ever flown before. While the momentous Artemis 1 mission includes some research objectives, it serves as a technology demonstration and a symbol. "To all of us who gazed up at the moon, dreaming of the day humankind returns to the lunar surface, we are going back. That journey, our journey, begins with Artemis 1," said NASA chief Bill Nelson at a virtual press conference in early August.
 

Wise

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South Korea’s $180 million mission — the country’s first step in lunar exploration — features a boxy, solar-powered satellite designed to skim just 62 miles (100 kilometers) above the lunar surface. Scientists expect to collect geologic and other data for at least a year from this low polar orbit.
Interesting. North Korea is also interesting:

The Kwangmyŏngsŏng program is a class of experimental satellites developed by North Korea. The name Kwangmyŏngsŏng ("bright star", "brilliant star" or "constellation" in Korean) is from a poem written by Kim Il-sung. The first class of satellites built by North Korea, the program started in the mid-1980s. There have been five launches so far, of which two have been successful.
 

Wise

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NASA is seeking proposals for sustainable lunar lander development and demonstration as the agency works toward a regular cadence of Moon landings. Through Artemis missions, NASA is preparing to return humans to the Moon, including the first woman and first person of color, for long-term scientific discovery and exploration.

Under the solicitation, Human Landing System Sustaining Lunar Development, NASA has provided requirements for companies interested in developing and demonstrating astronaut Moon landers. These efforts will pave the way for multiple companies to provide recurring Moon landing services beyond the Artemis III mission, which is planned for no earlier than 2025.