The second half of the year has seen a lot of activity for the Moon. The US has launched three rockets to the moon since late June.
There have been a total of 15 missions sent to fly by the Moon, enter the Earth's atmosphere, or land there since these four launches. The most notable of these is NASA's capsule, which is due to return to Earth on December 11.
The renaissance in lunar exploration is represented by this. Over the course of five decades, NASA and the US sent a total of 15 missions to the moon. US rockets will launch 15 missions to the moon in about five months.
The launch of the Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to take place on Thursday morning. The Hakuto-R mission was developed by a Japanese company.
The mission was pushed back a day after the company said it needed more time to address technical issues. The relatively small lander will spend about three months following a long trajectory to reach the Moon, which will allow it to arrive there using less fuel.
Advertisementispace is trying to become the first private company to land a spaceship on another world. Japan would become the fourth country to land on the moon if the company succeeds.
It is a challenge to land on the moon. Attempts by India and SpaceIL to land on the Moon have failed.
The Rashid lunar rover is one of the things being carried by the Hakuto-R landers. The small rover is about 10 kilomes and will carry two high-resolution cameras as an experiment to study lunar dust.
A secondary passenger is going to be sent to the moon by NASA. The small lunar Flashlight mission, a 6U cubeSat the size of a briefcase, is bound for a near-rectilinear halo around the Moon like the private CAPSTONE mission.
The goal of the mission is to find ice on the moon. There are four lasers that emit light. More ice is likely to be found in craters on the Moon. The mission should help inform the future explorations of lunar ice deposits.
There is more to come as this period has been busy. Two US companies,Intuitive Machines and Astrobotic, are expected to attempt lunar landings in the first half of the 20th century. India, Japan, and possibly even Russia are all planning to launch missions to the moon in the near future.
NASA is going to build its entire Artemis Program around lunar exploration, including human missions and the possibility of a settlement late this decade. China is planning to land its own astronauts on the Moon in about a decade.
The moon is back after a half century.
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