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2023 was one of the most exciting years for space exploration. More people were in space at the same time than ever before. The number of space tourism flights also took off, and India became the fourth country to successfully soft-land on the moon – that's to name just a few highlights. 2024 is set to be just as exciting.
As a pioneering mission prepares for lift-off this week, the eyes of the world once more turn upwards - to the moon.
A rocket carrying NASA technology will blast off for the unexplored lunar south pole - part of an Earth-wide drive to find a crucial substance: water.
Hopefully, a greater amount of water can be found somewhere.
In 2020, data from NASA's SOFIA mission confirmed water exists in the sunlit area of the lunar surface as molecules of H2O embedded within, or perhaps sticking to the surface of, grains of lunar dust.
Observations from instruments on orbiters and probes found that the Moon's north and south poles probably contain over 1.3 trillion pounds (600 billion kilograms) of water ice.
Scientists have discovered a new and renewable source of water on the moon for future explorers in lunar samples from a Chinese mission. Water was embedded in tiny glass beads in the lunar dirt where meteorite impacts occur.
The first evidence of water in moon atmosphere came by an Indian device Chandra's Altitudinal Composition (CHACE) that was mounted on Moon Impact probe released from Chandrayaan -1.
So-called "Lunar Water" is water that is present on the Moon. Diffuse water molecules in low concentrations can persist at the Moon's sunlit surface, as discovered by the SOFIA observatory (an 80/20 joint project of NASA and the German Aerospace Centre, DLR) in 2020. Gradually, water vapor is decomposed by sunlight, leaving hydrogen and oxygen lost to outer space. Scientists have found water ice in the cold, permanently shadowed craters at the Moon's poles. Water molecules are also present in the extremely thin lunar atmosphere.
NASA's Ice-Mining Experiment-1 (set to launch on the PRIME-1 mission no earlier than late 2024) is intended to answer whether or not water ice is present in usable quantities in the southern polar region.
Water (H2O) and the related hydroxyl group (-OH) exist in forms chemically bonded as hydrates and hydroxides to lunar minerals (rather than free water), and evidence strongly suggests that this is the case in low concentrations as for much of the Moon's surface.
Inconclusive evidence of "free water ice" at the lunar poles had accumulated during the second half of the 20th century from a variety of observations suggesting the presence of bound hydrogen.
On 18 August 1976, the Soviet Luna 24 probe landed at Mare Crisium, took samples from the depths of 118, 143, and 184 cm of the lunar regolith, and returned them to Earth. In February 1978, laboratory analysis of these samples showed that they contained 0.1% (1,000 ppm) water by mass. Spectral measurements certainly showed minima near 3, 5, and 6 µm, distinctive valence-vibration bands for water molecules, with intensities two or three times larger than the noise level.
On 24 September 2009, the Indian Space Research Organisation's Chandra's Altitudinal Composition Explorer (CHACE) and NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) spectrometer on board the Chandrayaan-1 probe had detected absorption features near 2.8–3.0 μm on the surface of the Moon. On 14 November 2008, Chandrayaan-1 released the Moon Impact Probe to impact the Shackleton crater, which helped confirm the presence of water ice. For silicate bodies, such features are typically attributed to hydroxyl- and/or water-bearing materials. In August 2018, NASA confirmed that M3 showed water ice is present on the surface at the Moon poles. Water in concentrations of 100 to 412 parts per million (0.01%-.042%) was confirmed to be on the sunlit surface of the Moon by the SOFIA observatory on October 26, 2020.
Water may have been delivered to the Moon over geological timescales by the regular bombardment of water-bearing comets, asteroids, and meteoroids or continuously produced in situ by the hydrogen ions (protons) of the solar wind impacting oxygen-bearing minerals.
The search for a greater presence of lunar water continues. Water would be very useful for long-term lunar habitation.
See Why China Is About To Take Over The Moon In 2024!
The so-called Chinese Lunar Exploration Program (CLEP; Chinese: 中国探月; pinyin: Zhōngguó Tànyuè), also known as the Chang'e Project (Chinese: 嫦娥工程; pinyin: Cháng'é Gōngchéng) after the Chinese Moon goddess Chang'e, is an ongoing series of robotic Moon missions by the China National Space Administration (CNSA). The important program encompasses lunar orbiters (spacecrafts designed to go into orbit), landers, rovers and sample return spacecraft, launched using the Long March series of rockets. A human lunar landing component may have been added to the program, after China indeed publicly announced crewed lunar landing plans by the year 2030 during a conference in July 2023.
The program's launches and flights are monitored by a telemetry, tracking, and command (TT&C) system, which uses 50-meter (160-foot) radio antennas in Beijing and 40-meter (130-foot) antennas in Kunming, Shanghai, and Ürümqi to form a 3,000-kilometer (1,900-mile) VLBI antenna. A proprietary ground application system is responsible for downlink data reception.
Ouyang Ziyuan, a geologist, chemical cosmologist, and the program's chief scientist, was among the first to advocate the exploitation not only of known lunar reserves of metals such as titanium, but also of helium-3, an ideal fuel for future nuclear fusion power plants. Ye Peijian serves as the program's chief commander and chief designer. Scientist Sun Jiadong is the program's general designer and Sun Zezhou is deputy general designer. The leading program manager is Luan Enjie.
The first spacecraft of the program, the Chang'e 1 lunar orbiter, was launched from Xichang Satellite Launch Center on 24 October 2007, having been delayed from the initial planned date of 17–19 April 2007. A second orbiter, Chang'e 2, was launched on 1 October 2010. Chang'e 3, which includes a lander and rover, was launched on 1 December 2013 and successfully soft-landed on the Moon on 14 December 2013. Chang'e 4, which includes a lander and rover, was launched on 7 December 2018 and landed on 3 January 2019 in the South Pole-Aitken Basin, on the far side of the Moon. A sample return mission, Chang'e 5, which launched on 23 November 2020 and returned on 16 December in the same year, brought 1,731 g (61.1 oz) of lunar samples back to Earth.
As indicated by the official insignia, the shape of a calligraphic nascent lunar crescent with two human footprints at its center reminiscent of the Chinese character 月, the Chinese character for "Moon", the ultimate objective of the program is to pave the way for a crewed mission to the Moon. China National Space Administration head Zhang Kejian had announced that China is planning to build a scientific research station on the Moon's south pole "within the next 10 years," (2019–2029).
On 12 July 2023, at the 9th China (International) Commercial Aerospace Forum in Wuhan, Hubei province, Zhang Hailian, a deputy chief designer with the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA), publicly introduced a preliminary plan to land two astronauts on the Moon by the year 2030.
China Manned Space Agency (Chinese: 中国载人航天工程办公室) is an agency of the People's Republic of China responsible for the administration of China Manned Space Program, the Chinese human spaceflight program. The agency is under the Equipment Development Department of the Central Military Commission.
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These liquid robots are truly mind-blowing and fascinating.
The Magnetic Slime Robot is interesting. A magnetic slime robot is a self-healing soft robot made up of polyvinyl alcohol, borax and neodymium magnet particles. It was co-created by professor Li Zhang of Chinese University of Hong Kong. It is really a non-Newtonian fluid that behaves like a liquid or solid depending on force, having "visco-elastic properties". The robot is developed by and could be deployed inside the human body to perform tasks such as retrieving objects out of it. Contrary to its name, it currently does not have a robot in it, and is only controlled by magnets. It can reach speeds of 30 millimeters per second.
Properties of the so-called robot are interesting. It is in the form of a blob of slime. It is said to be able to make C and O shapes with its body, and these robots could navigate passages as small as 1.5 millimeters. Its self-healing properties make it able to connect with other separate parts of itself to make a whole. It is made of neodymium magnet particles, which make the slime magnetic, and allow the slime to stretch when being attracted to metal.
The robot has various hypothetical uses for the future, such as in health care. It is believed that this kind of magnetic robot could extract unhealthy objects ingested by humans, and possibly traverse out of the body with the ingested object with it, and scientists state that the slime is capable of "transporting harmful things". The robot could be used to be deployed into the human body to retrieve objects that were possibly accidentally ingested. Zhang states that the slime can prevent toxic electrolytes from leaking out by performing encapsulation, and create a kind of coating around the object that is leaking.
Despite the possible health benefits this "robot" can provide, it is currently toxic to ingest for humans, and will leak out toxic neodymium particles into the body. Researchers coated the slime robot in silicon dioxide to make a protective layer in the belief that it will prevent the slime from having neodymium leak into human insides. Zhang states that the safety of the slime being in the human body is dependent on the time duration it stays inside.
Electrical properties of the robot are interesting. The magnetic slime robot is shown and told to be able to conduct electricity, and to pull wires together. Scientists state that the robotic slime is capable of "circuit switching and repair."
Eggs Found In 'Alien Bodies' Displayed In Mexico - Mexico Alien Corpse - N18V
Mexican doctors conducted extensive laboratory studies on the two alleged "non-human" alien corpses revealed last week. The tests were done by Jose de Jesus Zalce Benitez, a forensic doctor with the navy at the Noor Clinic on Monday. Dr Benitez said "no evidence of any assembly or manipulation of the skulls" were found.
The doctors said that the so-called bodies belonged to a single skeleton. Jaime Maussan, a Mexican journalist and longtime UFO enthusiast, presented two tiny mummified bodies with elongated heads and three fingers on each hand. One was described as female, with eggs inside.
The specimens were about 1,000 years old, according to carbon testing carried out by researchers at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Mr Maussan claimed they were not related to any species on Earth.
Mexican doctors have carried out several laboratory studies on the remains of alleged non-human beings, which were presented in recent days to Mexico's congress.
According to Jose de Jesus Zalce Benitez, director of the Health Sciences Research Institute of the Secretary of the Navy, the studies showed that the alleged bodies belonged to a single skeleton and were not assembled.
Zalce Benitez also said that the laboratory tests have shown that "there is no evidence of any assembly or manipulation of the skulls."
Mexican journalist Jaime Maussan recently showed two tiny mummified bodies he said were "non-human" beings to congress, sparking a controversy between the scientific community and the Peruvian government, who claim that the remains are pre-Hispanic objects.
