lander
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Chinese Probe Heads Back to Earth With Samples From the Moon’s Mysterious Far Side
After a short visit to the Moon’s far side, a Chinese spacecraft loaded with lunar rock and dust has started its return trip to Earth to deliver these precious samples. China’s Chang’e 6 mission ascent vehicle lifted off from the Aitken Basin on the lunar south pole on Monday at 7:38 p.m. ET (7:38 a.m.…
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Not Dead Yet: Japan’s Upside-Down Moon Lander Unexpectedly Wakes Up After Lunar Night
The SLIM lunar lander unexpectedly sprung back to life after hibernating during the freezing lunar night, sending a signal back to Earth more than a month after ending up face down on the Moon. On Monday, Japan’s space agency revealed that it reestablished communication with its lander. Yes, breaking this into two sentences can improve…
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After Ingenuity: Bigger, Bolder Aircraft for Exploring Aliens Worlds
The little helicopter touched down with the Perseverance rover in 2021. On January 25, NASA announced that the flying vehicle had to perform an emergency landing which damaged one of its rotors and ended its mission. This reminds us that space exploration is still difficult to do. But Ingenuity’s three years on Mars proved that…
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Sunlight May Reignite Japan’s Struggling ‘Lunar Sniper’ on the Moon
Japan’s space agency, JAXA, achieved a historic soft landing with SLIM on Friday morning, but the lander ran into instant trouble by not being able to collect solar energy and generate electricity. Hopeful for some westerly sunshine, JAXA is cautiously optimistic that SLIM could spring back to life in a couple of weeks. Shortly after…