Tag: The moon

Any human who spends enough time in a low-gravity environment — such as a future habitat on the moon — will experience bodily changes as their muscles atrophy, their bones lose mass and their control over their whole body itself declines. This is why astronauts who spend time beyond Earth’s atmosphere must exercise on their missions. Without physical fitness, they’ll struggle to function on even a basic level when they return to Earth’s gravity. Now, researchers from the University of Milan have devised a new form of exercise to keep…

Read More

NASA”s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) has earned its “neck” and “head,” aka its “mast,” meaning it now stands proudly at 8 feet (2.4 meters) tall.  The photo below,  taken in a clean room at NASA’s Johnson Space Center earlier this month, shows progress on quite the impressive robot. It is expected to take a trip to the South Pole of the moon later this year, embarking on a 100-day mission. The mission  will involve learning more about water on the moon and gleaning what other resources may be…

Read More

Between 1969 and 1972, the Apollo missions sent a total of a dozen astronauts to the surface of the moon — and that was before the explosion of modern technology. So why does it seem like our current efforts, as embodied by NASA’s Artemis program, are so slow, halting and complex?  There isn’t one easy answer, but it comes down to money, politics and priorities. Let’s start with the money. Yes, the Apollo missions were enormously successful — and enormously expensive. At its peak, NASA was consuming around 5% of…

Read More

Over 4.2 billion years ago, the moon turned itself inside out to create the lunar surface that has become familiar to humanity.  Most scientists would agree the moon was created around 4.5 billion years ago, when another massive body in the solar system smashed into Earth, flinging molten material into space that coalesced as our natural satellite. How the birth of the moon proceeded after this violent start, however, has been described as “more of a choose-your-own-adventure novel” by a team of scientists from the University of Arizona’s Lunar and…

Read More

Railroads could open the moon to serious and sustained economic development, as they did in the American West in the late 19th century. That’s apparently the hope of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which is supporting the development of a “lunar railroad” concept proposed by aerospace giant Northrop Grumman. “The envisioned lunar railroad network could transport humans, supplies and resources for commercial ventures across the lunar surface, contributing to a space economy for the United States and international partners,” Northrop Grumman representatives wrote in a press statement…

Read More

When the Apollo astronauts snapped some 18,000 photographs on the moon in the 1960s, they did so with some very 1960s camera technology. Lacking viewfinders, the astronauts had to attach their cameras to their spacesuits’ chests. Reliant on photographic film, the astronauts needed separate equipment entirely to capture video. If all goes to plan, Artemis astronauts will soon be taking their own trips to the moon. As such, NASA plans to equip them with some very 2020s camera technology — and the space agency will do so with the help…

Read More