Photo credit: NASA | Bill Stafford
NASA astronauts used one 70mm Hasselblad camera with interchangeable 80mm and 250mm lenses during Apollo 17, and now, Nikon is set to develop a next-generation Lunar Artemis Camera for future Moon missions. Before signing the Space Pact Agreement, NASA performed initial utilizing a standard Nikon Z 9 to determine the specifications a camera would need to operate on the lunar surface.
Photo credit: Space.com
Intuitive Machines Odysseus lunar lander safely touched down on the Moon, but manged to tip over during the process. This may have been due to the fact that Odysseus’ laser rangefinders weren’t working properly, so NASA engineers had to implement a workaround to get the required altitude and velocity data.
Intuitive Machines just released the first images captured by the IM-1 mission Nova-C lunar lander. These were taken shortly after separation from SpaceX’s Falcon 9 second stage on Intuitive Machines’ first journey to the moon under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.
JAXA’s Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) may have snapped its last image before going dormant on the lunar surface. To see if that is truly the case, the team will need to wait for just over 2-weeks for optimal lighting and temperature conditions before it can possibly be revived.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA’s) Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) touched down on the Moon in an unexpected position, or more specifically, upside down. This makes Japan the fifth country in history to reach the lunar surface, but trouble with the probe’s solar batteries made it hard at first to figure out if the spacecraft made it in the target zone.
Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander will deliver five NASA payloads to Sinus Viscositatis, a large flat region on the Moon that was once a giant lava flow near the Gruithuisen Domes. It’s set to launch on Monday, January 8, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, atop a United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket.
Photo credit: ESA–A. Romeo
Astronauts recently put the ESA’s Handheld Universal Lunar Camera (HULC) to the test in the lunar-like landscapes of Lanzarote, Spain, as part of the PANGAEA training program. The latter aims to prepare astronauts to become effective field scientists for future missions to the lunar surface, including NASA’s Artemis III, which will land on the South Pole of the Moon.