Lunar Lander

It was second time lucky for Japan as it successfully launched its first lunar lander on September 6 at 23:42 GMT atop a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries H-IIA rocket from the Tanegashima Space Center 25 miles (40 km) south of Kyushu.

India is furthering its bid to become a major spacefaring power. The launch of its first mission to the Sun comes just as it winds down its first successful robotic Moon landing, with the Pragyan lunar rover completing its work and going into sleep mode.

The fate of Russia's failed Luna 25 Moon landing mission has been confirmed after NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) found a new impact crater at the estimated position of the lander's crash shortly before its attempted landing.

India's Chandrayaan-3 Moon mission has hit the ground running with the Vikram lander and the Pragyan rover sending back their first images and instrument data while the rover makes a slow-motion swerve around a crater.

India joined one of the solar system's most exclusive clubs as it successfully landed its first probe on the Moon. On August 23 at 12:32 GMT, the robotic spacecraft touched down near the lunar south pole, making it the southernmost landing to date.

Russia's ambitions for its first Moon landing mission in 47 years have come to an abrupt end after the Luna 25 lander crashed into the lunar surface. According to Roscosmos, the robotic probe impacted on August 19 at 2:57 pm Moscow time after a malfunction.

Japan may soon join a very exclusive club as its privately-led Hakuto-R Mission 1 lunar lander went into orbit around the Moon on March 21 at 10:24 JST after completing a controlled main engine burn in anticipation of a landing attempt in late April.

While most artists aspire to have their work exhibited somewhere like The Metropolitan Museum of Art, a piece by Dubai-based painter Sacha Jafri may soon be soaring to even loftier heights – plans call for it to be permanently displayed on the Moon.

With temperatures as cold as to -232 °C, the lunar night is not a friendly place for electronics. Space technology company Masten has developed a more efficient, safer system that uses chemical reactions to keep lander electronics warm until dawn.

Masten Space Systems is working on a way to protect future lunar landers from the regolith thrown up by their engines as they land, by using their engine plume to create their own landing pads just before touchdown.

Israeli startup SpaceIL is gearing up for a second attempt to land the first ever privately-funded spacecraft on the Moon, after securing funds for a new mission with even loftier goals that is slated for launch in 2024.

The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is planning to send a tiny transforming ball-shaped robot to the lunar surface in 2022 to gather data for the development of a future crewed exploration rover.