China and India managed to land on the Moon, while Russia, Japan and Israel only ended up in the lunar trash heap.
Currently two private companies are trying to bring the United States (US) back into the world of space, more than five decades after the Apollo program ended.
This is part of a NASA-backed effort to begin commercial deliveries to the Moon, as the space agency focuses on bringing astronauts back there.
Pittsburgh Astrobotic Technology became the first company to participate in the lander launch plan on Monday (7/1). They will use a new rocket, Vulcan from United Launch Alliance. Houston Intuitive Machines aims to launch the lander in mid-February, conducting a flight with SpaceX.
Then there’s Japan, which will attempt a landing in two weeks. The Japanese Space Agency’s lander with two toy-sized probes got off to a good start, sharing a launch in September with an X-ray telescope that remains in orbit around Earth.
Neil Armstrong’s Apollo 11 astraut, right, trudges across the lunar surface. (Photo: AP)
If successful, Japan will become the fifth country to land on the Moon. Russia and the US did it repeatedly in the 1960s and 70s. China has successfully landed three times in the past decade – including on the far side of the Moon – and will return to the far side of the moon later this year to bring back lunar samples. And last summer, India did just that. Only the US has ever sent astronauts to the Moon.
Landing without damage is not easy. There’s barely any atmosphere to slow the spacecraft down, and the parachutes obviously wouldn’t work. This means that the lander must descend using thrusters, while passing through dangerous cliffs and craters.
The Japanese millionaire’s company, ispace, experienced an emergency landing on the Moon last April, followed by a Russian emergency landing in August. India made a successful landing a few days later near the south polar region. The landing was the second attempt by India after it crashed in 2019. An Israeli non-profit organization also had an accident in 2019.
The US has not made a Moon landing since Apollo 17’s Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt, the last of the 12 lunar explorers, in December 1972.
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Astrobotic and Intuitive Machines not only want to end the US Moon landing drought, they are also vying for the title of being the first private entity to land on the Moon smoothly.
Despite its late launch, the Intuitive Machine has a faster and more direct shot and will land within a week of liftoff. Astrobotic took two weeks to reach the Moon and another month in lunar orbit, before landing on February 23.
“This is going to be a very, very exciting ride,” said Astrobotic chief executive John Thornton.
His colleague at Intuitive Machines, Steve Altemus, said the space race “has more to do with geopolitics, where China is going, where the rest of the world is going.” Meaning, “We certainly want to be the first.”
The two companies have been neck-and-neck since each received nearly $80 million in 2019 under NASA’s program to develop lunar delivery services. Fourteen companies now have contracts with NASA. [ah/ft]
2024-01-06 15:06:57
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