China set to bring back first rocks from the Moon in more than 40 years

China launched a robotic spacecraft early Tuesday morning, tasking it with landing on the moon and bringing back lunar samples, 44 years after the last time such extraterrestrial substances were brought back to Earth.

A Long March 5 heavy-lift carrier rocket, the biggest and mightiest launch vehicle in China, was tasked with placing the 8.2-metric ton Chang'e 5, which has four components -- orbiter, lander, ascender and re-entry capsule -- in an Earth-moon transfer trajectory.

After its arrival in lunar orbit, the probe will fly around the moon for a certain period of time and will then separate into two parts, with the orbiter and re-entry capsule remaining in orbit while the lander-ascender combination descending to the lunar surface.

All Credits: CNSA

ISRO Plans to Build Reusable Rockets

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has finally revealed their plans to build reusable rockets and heavy lift launchers for the next decade. “In line with global directions, we require to develop heavy lift launch vehicle, semi-cryogenic stage, reusable launch vehicle, advance propulsion, next generation avionics, advance materials, dynamic space applications and efficient integration of space based services as well as advanced space science missions,” says ISRO. At the same time, ambitious projects like the Gaganyaan Mission, Chandrayaan-3, The Aditya-L1 solar mission and a first Indian Data Relay Satellite mission are already in progress. A first, uncrewed flight for the Gaganyaan human spaceflight project is planned for late 2021. It was announced late last year that the first crewed launch had been delayed from December 2021 to no earlier than 2022, ostensibly due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. India conducted just two launches in 20...

NASA Shares List of Targets for James Webb Telescope’s First Images

Below is the list of cosmic objects that Webb targeted for these first observations, which will be released in NASA’s live broadcast beginning at 10:30 a.m. EDT Tuesday, July 12. 🌟Carina Nebula. The Carina Nebula is one of the largest and brightest nebulae in the sky, located approximately 7,600 light-years away in the southern constellation Carina. Nebulae are stellar nurseries where stars form. The Carina Nebula is home to many massive stars, several times larger than the Sun. 🌟WASP-96 b (spectrum). WASP-96 b is a giant planet outside our solar system, composed mainly of gas. The planet, located nearly 1,150 light-years from Earth, orbits its star every 3.4 days. It has about half the mass of Jupiter, and its discovery was announced in 2014. 🌟Southern Ring Nebula. The Southern Ring, or “Eight-Burst” nebula, is a planetary nebula – an expanding cloud of gas, surrounding a dying star. It is nearly half a light-year in diameter and is located approximately 2,000 light yea...

Mars had liquid water 2 billion years ago : NASA

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) launched in 2005 has helped scientists determine that Mars had surface water as recently as 2 billion years ago. Previous studies had concluded that water on Mars evaporated about 3 billion years ago and this new find reduces that timeline significantly. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/USGS Now scientists have found signs of liquid water on the Red Planet as recently as 2 billion to 2.5 billion years ago, meaning water flowed there about a billion years longer than previous estimates. While the shape of certain valley networks hinted that water may have flowed on Mars recently, the salt deposits provide the first mineral evidence confirming the presence of liquid water. The discovery raises new questions about how long microbial life could have survived on Mars, if it ever formed at all. Ellen Leask, post-doctoral researcher at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory, along with professor Bethany Ehlmann from...

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