Category: Moon

Deciding to go to Jupiter was the easy part: it’s by far the largest planet around the Sun, resembling a Solar System in its own right with its many moons, three of which may well be home to hidden oceans beneath their icy surfaces. Then came the practical question: how do we actually put together a mission to Read More

The crew of NASA’s Artemis II mission (left to right): NASA astronauts Christina Hammock Koch, Reid Wiseman (seated), Victor Glover, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. Credits: NASA NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) announced the four astronauts who will venture around the Moon on Artemis II, the first crewed mission on NASA’s Read More

In three years' time, the Monegasque Venturi Group will write the most impressive page in its history: in 2026, the FLEX (Flexible Logistics and Exploration) rover, the result of an international collaboration (see below), will head for the Moon. The American company SpaceX will be responsible for transporting the rover, which will be the largest Read More

Get ready to bounce. Bouncing around on the Moon not only sounds like a lot of fun, but it could also be good for astronaut's muscles, bones and the cardiorespiratory system. The "Movement in Low gravity environments" (MoLo) programme from ESA’s space medicine team at the European Astronaut Centre (EAC) in Cologne, Germany, aims to Read More

Sooner or later, settlers on the Moon will have to become farmers. A new ESA Discovery project led by Norway’s Solsys Mining is looking into the treatment of lunar soil to create fertiliser for growing plants. The good news is that analysis of lunar samples returned to Earth in the past by Moonwalkers and robots Read More

In brief ESA is calling creative minds to envision what a European spacesuit should look like. How could we visually design a spacewalk suit to be instantly recognisable as European? What should ESA’s branding look like in the next decades as our next generations of astronauts walk on the Moon, Mars and beyond? In-depth As Read More

ESA’s geology training course PANGAEA has come of age with the publication of a paper that describes the quest for designing the best possible geology training for the next astronauts to walk on the surface of the Moon. Since 2016, PANGAEA has equipped ten astronauts from three space agencies with the foundational knowledge and skills Read More

In brief The Mission X 2023 Walk to the Moon Challenge is now officially open.  As of 16 January, registered teams can complete activities, earn points, and help the Mission X mascots, Luna and Leo, walk to the Moon! In-depth Mission X is a free educational and inspirational project that challenges students to train like Read More

  Here is a look at the most significant events this year at America's multiuser spaceport:FEBRUARY Rocco A. Petrone Launch Control Center at Kennedy   Credits: NASA/Cory Huston     Launch Control Center Renamed for Famed Launch Director     Following a Feb. 22 ceremony, the Launch Control Center at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida was officially renamed Read More

Webb's picture of the month December is dominated by NGC 7469, a luminous, face-on spiral galaxy approximately 90 000 light-years in diameter that lies roughly 220 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Pegasus.  This spiral galaxy has recently been studied as part of the Great Observatories All-sky LIRGs Survey (GOALS), which aims to study Read More