Category The Universe, Exploring the Universe, Solar System, The Moon, Space, Space Travel

On December 1, 2013, China launched the Chang’e-3 lunar rover mission on December 1, 2013. The unmanned spacecraft became the first spacecraft to ‘soft-land’ on the Moon since 1976. The spacecraft entered the elliptic orbit on Dec 10, 2013, and landed on the lunar surface on December 14, 2013. Soon after the touchdown in the Mare Imbrium, a small six-wheeled, solar-powered Yutu rover was deployed and driven across the airless surface. But Yutu stopped moving from December 16. However, its instruments continued to function till March 2015, sending back valuable information about the Moon to scientists.

In the landing sequence, the Chang’e-3 lander is dropped from an altitude of 4 m above the lunar surface which required a cushioning landing system on the lander to create a fairly soft landing. The system also has to support the rover release that is performed after landing. A “cantilever-type” design has been selected for Chang’e-3.

The landing system utilizes four primary landing legs that are equipped with footpads to avoid sinking into the surface. The Chinese used previous lander designs and knowledge on the properties of the lunar dust to develop a landing system that minimizes mass while maximizing stability.

The primary landing struts facilitate bumpers with interior buffer elements to provide shock-absorbing capabilities. The legs are installed at an angle of 30º to the lander structure. Multi-functional and single-functional secondary struts are attached to the landing legs to provide additional attach points to the lander body.

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On February 15, 2013, A powerful meteor broke up over the city of Chelyabinsk, Russia, on Feb. 15, 2013, producing powerful shockwaves which shattered glasses, injured over 1490 people and damaged over 4,300 buildings. The blast scattered meteor shards across the region and left big holes in the ice- covered Lake Chebarkul. Chelyabinsk, as the meteor came to be known, was no ordinary rock. It was a superbolide, an extremely bright meteor capable of exploding in the atmosphere. It entered Earth at a speed of 69,000 km/h and was observed over a wide area of the region. The same day a 130-foot asteroid called 2012 DA14 gave Earth a close shave, missing our planet by just 27,000 km. But the two space rocks are unrelated.

In the next 10 million years, large rock pieces (along with some dust) combined to create an asteroid about 60 miles (100 km) wide, Kring said. This parent body sustained a large impact with another space object about 125 million years after the solar system was formed, with more strikes coming during the “late heavy bombardment” period — a time of frequent small-body strikes that occurred between 3.8 billion and 4.3 billion years ago. Two other impacts have come in the last 500 million years. Closer to the Chelyabinsk event, the parent body experienced yet another impact and was also nudged out of the main asteroid belt into an orbit that crossed near Earth’s.

Initially, the Chelyabinsk bolide was thought to be part of 1999 NC43, an asteroid that’s 1.24 miles (2 km) wide, but the orbit and mineral composition between the two bodies turned out to be different. In April 2015, a study in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society suggested Chelyabinsk had been a part of asteroid 2014 UR116.

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On May 25, 2012 SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft became the first commercial spacecraft to successfully dock with the International Space Station to offload its cargo. The SpaceX Dragon is a reusable cargo spacecraft developed by SpaceX, an American private space transportation company. SpaceX has been contracted to deliver cargo to the ISS under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services program, and Dragon has been carrying cargo to the ISS on a regular basis since 2012.

On 3 June 2017, the CRS-11 capsule, largely assembled from previously flown components from the CRS-4 mission in September 2014, was launched again for the first time, with the hull, structural elements, thrusters, harnesses, propellant tanks, plumbing and many of the avionics reused while the heat shield, batteries and components exposed to sea water upon splashdown for recovery were replaced.

SpaceX has developed a second version called Dragon 2, which includes the capability to transport people. Flight testing was scheduled to complete in the first half of 2019 with the first flight of astronauts, on a mission contracted to NASA, scheduled to occur later the same year; however, a test pad anomaly in May 2019, which resulted in the loss of a Dragon 2 capsule, has delayed this development.

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On August 25, 2012 Voyager 1, part of NASA’s Voyager Program, became the first spacecraft to cross the heliospause and enter the interstellar medium. Heliospause is the boundary of the heliosphere. It is a spherical region around the Sun that is filled with solar magnetic fields and the outward-moving solar wind. Two probes, Voyager 1 and 2, were launched in 1977 to study the outer planets in our solar system, but subsequently, their missions were extended to explore the world beyond. Voyager 2 too entered the interstellar medium on November 5, 2018. Both the probes remain operational past expectations and continue to send information about the outer expanses of the Solar system. Aboard each spacecraft is a golden record, a collection of sights, sounds and greetings from Earth. It is basically a 90-minute mixtape for any extraterrestrial passerby who might stumble upon one if the two Voyager spaceships at some points in the future.

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On November 26, 2011 NASA launched Curiosity Mars rover to explore crater Gale on the Red Planet. The rover was tasked to investigate the Martian climate and geology and assess whether the planet could support microbial life. In December 2012, Curiosity’s two-year mission was extended indefinitely. In 2019, it was revealed that Curiosity had detected the largest amount of methane ever measured during its mission on Mars. Scientists are looking for more evidence to find its source, because microbial life is an important source of methane on Earth. However, methane can also be created through interactions between rocks and water.

As established by the Mars Exploration Program, the main scientific goals of the MSL mission are to help determine whether Mars could ever have supported life, as well as determining the role of water, and to study the climate and geology of Mars. The mission results will also help prepare for human exploration.

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March 18, 2011: NASA’s Messenger spacecraft successfully entered the orbit of planet Mercury, becoming the first spacecraft to do so. During its stay in the planet’s orbit, Messenger’s instruments yielded significant data about Mercury’s magnetic field. It showed evidence of ‘water ice’ on the planet’s North Pole. Messenger’s mission lasted until 2015, when it crashed onto the surface, likely creating a crater in the planet’s northern terrain.

One of MESSENGER’s most remarkable images was its mosaic of our solar system, obtained Feb. 18, 2011, with all the planets visible except Uranus and Neptune—a visual counterpart to the image of the solar system taken by Voyager 1 on Feb. 14, 1990.

The spacecraft completed its primary yearlong mission March 17, 2012, having taken nearly 100,000 images of the surface of Mercury.

Among its initial discoveries was finding high concentrations of magnesium and calcium on Mercury’s night side, identifying a significant northward offset of Mercury’s magnetic field from the planet’s center, finding large amounts of water in Mercury’s exosphere, and revealing evidence of past volcanic activity on the surface.

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