China Discovers Graphene on the Moon

Discovery of natural few-layer graphene on the Moon They report the discovery and direct microscopy visualization of natural few-layer graphene in the CE-5 lunar soil samples, by utilizing a variety of characterization techniques. Graphene is embedded as individual flakes or formed as part of a carbon shell enclosing the mineral particles. The result reveals one …

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NASA Defines Lunar Cargo Mobility Needs as Part of Larger Moon, Mars Plans

NASA is creating plans and white papers to describe what they will need for lunar cargo movement in near term exploration and development plans. NASA has already defined a Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) and Pressurized Rover (PR) for crew transportation and with limited cargo mobility functions. There is planned near-term robotic missions. There is a …

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SpaceX Starship to Starship Fuel Transfer Test in 2025

According to Kshatriya, SpaceX will perform a Starship-to-Starship cryogenic propellant transfer test in 2025. According to Kshatriya, SpaceX will perform a Starship-to-Starship cryogenic propellant transfer test in 2025. pic.twitter.com/S6f17Rr6zy — Eric Berger (@SciGuySpace) April 26, 2024 We have known that fuel transfer capability is critical for the $3.5 billion NASA-SpaceX Lunar Starship program. SpaceX will …

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SpaceX Plans a Permanent Moonbase

SpaceX will build a permanently manned moonbase using many lunar Starships. The Lunar Starship will have landing legs, but no heat shield and no flaps. The Lunar Starships would only dock with tankers and would not land back on Earth. SpaceX has increased efforts and planning for a moonbase. Japanese entrepreneur and billionaire Yusaku Maezawa …

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Intuitive Machines IM-1 Odysseus Lander Tipped Over But is Functioning

Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus lunar lander is tipped over on its side. It captured a wide field of view image of Schomberger crater on the Moon approximately 125 miles (200 km) uprange from the intended landing site, at approximately about 6 miles (10 km) altitude. Despite being on it side, the equipment is functioning. The recent …

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Intuitive Machines Lunar Landing SUCCESS

Intuitive Machines will have a livestream of the IM-1 lunar landing time has hit and there has been a communication issue. They are rebooting the ground transmitter. 3:33 PST Signs of life. Tracking a return signal. Successful Landing confirmed at about 3:35 PST Flight controllers chose to exercise an additional orbit before starting the IM-1 …

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