2023-12-05 08:00:00
Will we have another human walking on lunar soil? This is the objective of NASA’s mission in partnership with the private company Astrobotic. Photo: Oleg Yakovlev. Karen Teixeira Meteored Brazil 05/12/2023 09:00 7 min
More than 50 years after the last Apollo mission, the United States will try again to land a spacecraft on the Moon! How will this happen? Will there be a crew on board? Will we witness a second human walking on the Moon?
A big step for humanity!
According to Bill Nelson, director of the NASA, the United States is in a space race with China to return to the Moon. What’s more, he said he was certain that “we’ll get there first.” Half a century later, the American space agency is recruiting private companies to compete in this race against the Chinese.
The mission is scheduled for January 25, 2024 with the Peregrine landing module! But there will be no one on board.
It could be the first private company to successfully land on the lunar surface! And the landing module was developed by the American company Astrobotic, which will carry NASA instruments to study the lunar environment in preparation for NASA’s Artemis manned missions.
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For several years, NASA has chosen to contract with American companies to send scientific and technological experiments to the Moon, as part of a program called CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services). These fixed-price contracts should enable the development of a lunar economy and the provision of transport services at lower costs.
America is going back to the moon! NASA’s Christmas Eve launch will be first time US craft has landed on the lunar surface in more than 50 years pic.twitter.com/w9QhsSNXiQ
— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) November 30, 2023
The launch is scheduled for December 24 from Florida, aboard the inaugural flight of the new rocket from the industrial group ULA, called Vulcan Centaur. The probe will take “a few days” to reach lunar orbit, but will have to wait until January 25 before attempting to land, so that the light conditions at the target site are adequate. The descent will take place autonomously, without human intervention, but will be monitored from the company’s control center.
Who was the first human being to walk on the Moon?
The first human being to walk on the Moon was NASA astronaut Neil Armstrong in 1969, who traveled a long way to the space mission that took him to the lunar surface. On July 16, 1969, the Apollo 11 mission was launched by the Saturn V rocket, from Launch Complex 39 of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Space engineer Neil Armstrong was the first person to leave his mark on the surface of the Moon, at 03:56 (Lisbon time) on July 20, 1969. His arrival on the Moon was broadcast live!
By walking on the Moon, Neil uttered the now famous phrase: “One small step for man, one big step for humanity.” Soon after, astronaut Aldrin walked on the Moon and the two explored the lunar surface for almost three hours, aiming to perform a few science experiments and take a few photos, including of their footprints there.
Neil Armstrong’s footprint left on the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969. Photo: Reproduction/NASA.
The Eagle module landed in the lunar region called the Sea of Tranquility, located on the near side of the Moon. Armstrong was the first to descend, placing his left foot on the lunar surface. The Apollo 11 program greatly accelerated the world’s interest in exploring the Moon.
The last human being to set foot on the Moon
The Apollo program was a series of lunar missions coordinated by NASA between 1961 and 1972, responsible for all of humanity’s visits to the Moon. In total, there have been 11 manned missions, six of which landed on the lunar surface.
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Launched on December 7, 1972, the Apollo 17 mission had a crew of three astronauts, and after three days of travel, the astronauts began preparations to land the Challenger Lunar Module on the surface of the Moon.
On December 14, 1972, astronaut Eugene Cernan, commander of Apollo 17, was the last human being to leave a mark on the Moon!
With Cernan, Harrison Schmitt traveled a total of 30 km in a lunar rover, and the two stayed on the Moon for 75 hours, breaking the record for the longest mission to the Moon. They collected 110 kg of lunar samples that still help scientists understand part of the Moon’s geological history today.
Since the end of the Apollo program, no other mission has taken humans to the Moon, but NASA is working to change that through the Artemis Program. NASA’s new lunar program has big ambitions, like establishing a human presence in a sustainable way, but in reality, the Artemis missions are a starting point for even more ambitious missions, such as the planet Mars!
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