Moon

Although Saturn's moon Enceladus and Jupiter's moon Europa both have ice-covered surfaces, oceans may exist beneath that ice. The TRIPLE-nanoAUV 2 project is aimed at getting an uncrewed submersible into those oceans, to search for life.

Under a UK Space Agency contract, Bangor University in Wales is developing a new poppy-seed-sized nuclear fuel for the Rolls-Royce micro reactors that will power future crewed lunar outposts by 2030.

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's Chandrayaan-3's Vikram lander has deployed its Pragyan lunar rover as it begins its exploration of the Moon's south polar region. The robotic rover today rolled down a ramp and charged its solar batteries before beginning surface operations.

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.

Russia has reentered the 21st century race for the Moon with the launch of its first lunar mission in 47 years. Luna 25 lifted off from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia's far eastern Amur Region atop a Soyuz-2.1b rocket on August 10, 2023, 23:10 GMT.

In a scary first, scientists have discovered a 2021 solar eruption so large that it was, for the first time, detected simultaneously on Earth, the Moon, and Mars, highlighting the radiation dangers posed by such events to deep space travelers.

Not satisfied with sending rovers to other worlds one at a time, NASA is sending three miniature robots to the Moon in 2024 as part of the CADRE project. The goal is to see how such explorers can work as a team without direct control from Earth.