Apollo moon Archives

December 30, 2024December 30, 2024 by Mark Thompson

NASA to Probe the Secrets of the Lunar Regolith

Regolith Adherence Characterization, or RAC, is one of 10 science and technology instruments flying on NASA’s next Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) flight as part of the Blue Ghost Misison-1. Developed by Aegis Aerospace of Webster, Texas, RAC is designed to study how lunar dust reacts to more than a dozen different types of material samples, located on the payload’s wheels. Photo courtesy Firefly Aerospace

Gaze up at the Moon on any night and you will see a barren world displaying all manner of shades of grey. Aside from the obvious craters and lunar maria, the surface of the Moon is covered in the fine, dusty lunar regolith. The Apollo astronauts in the 60’s and 70’s learned that it was electromagnetically charged and was very abrasive posing a problem for mechanical equipment. Now a new payload on the Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative will explore the regolith even further.

January 10, 2024January 10, 2024 by Mark Thompson

NASA is Pushing Back its Moon Landings to 2026

I wasn’t around for the Apollo program that took human beings to the Moon. I would have love to have seen it all unfold though. With NASAs Artemis program the opportunity will soon be with us again to watch humans set foot on another world, just not for the first time. Alas NASA announced on Tuesday that the Moon landings which form part of Artemis 3, have been pushed back one year to 2026.

November 26, 2023November 26, 2023 by Mark Thompson

Apollo Samples Contain Hydrogen Hurled from the Sun

Apollo astronauts used specialized tools and technology made for space to collect lunar samples. — Apollo astronaut collecting lunar samples (Credit NASA)

According to the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, men should drink 3.7litres of water a day and women 2.7litres. Now imagine a crew of three heading to the Moon for a 3 week trip, that’s something of the order of 189 litres of water, that’s about 189 kilograms! Assuming you have to carry all the water rather than recycle some of it longer trips into space with more people are going to be logistically challenging for water carriage alone. Researchers from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) have discovered lunar rocks with hydrogen in them which, when combined with lunar oxygen provide a possibly supply for future explorers.