A team at the University of Maryland are developing a more accurate version of the Lunar Laser Ranging experiment that was left behind by Apollo 11, 14, and 15 between 1969 and 1971 that allows scientists to measure the distance from the Earth to the Moon extreme accuracy.
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Weird, hypothetical objects called "ploonets" may start life as a moon circling a giant planet, but models show they can be exiled and essentially turn into planets themselves. If true, this theory could explain away some astronomical mysteries.
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NASA has awarded Carnegie Mellon University and Astrobotic a US$5.6 million contract to build a new suitcase-sized robotic lunar rover that could land on the Moon as soon as 2021. The 24-lb MoonRanger rover is designed to operate autonomously on week-long missions within 0.6 mi of its lander.
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As our perception of the Moon has changed, so too have the cinematic stories we tell, and this chronology of the Moon on film tells the story of how we, as a civilization, have entirely changed our view of our lunar neighbor over the past 100 years.
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NASA has greenlit two deep-space mining concepts for further development. The awards are worth up to US$2 million over a two-year period and will fund a project to develop an autonomous Moon prospecting rover and a robotic mining system to extract water and other volatiles from the asteroids.
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The South Pole-Aitken basin on the Moon is the largest impact crater in the solar system, measuring about 2,500 km (1,550 mi) across at its widest point. And now scientists have detected something strange buried under the crater.
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This is the story of the Apollo Guidance Computer that helped the Apollo astronauts safely navigate to the Moon. It was a computer that was so advanced that the engineers who created it said they probably wouldn't have tried to do so if they'd known what they were getting themselves into.
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Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) has announced that it plans to send the first American unmanned rover to the Moon in July 2021. The miniature four-wheeled robot will ride aboard the Peregrine lander along with 14 other scientific payloads and will carry a miniature art gallery on its journey.
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Engineers at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans have now joined together four fifths of the Space Launch System’s core stage. The upcoming super heavy rocket is slated to make its maiden flight in 2020, and will provide the lifting capabilities for America’s return to the Moon.
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NASA has announced the first three contracts for unmanned lunar landing missions as part of the Artemis program that will see US astronauts returning to the Moon by 2024. The three commercial landers will support both science experiments and technology demonstrations.
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