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Last month, China's Yutu-2 rover sent home a striking image appearing to show—albeit very blurrily—a cube-shaped object off in the distance. Dubbed the "mystery house" by Chinese media (blissfully disinterested in how this would set off Western conspiracists, magonians and ironists) the object was tagged for closer inspection. Yutu-2 has now gotten closer, and, well, alas, sadly no.

Dubbed the "global insurance policy", the project is planning on sending seeds, sperm and ovaries to the Moon. A solar-powered ark would then cryogenically store the frozen samples from some 6.7 million species underground. Taking inspiration from Noah's Ark, experts fear that Earth may not be safe enough to ensure the survival of the human race - or any species. Prof Jekan Thanga, of University of Arizona, who proposed the idea in a paper earlier this year, says the human race must safeguard to world against global catastrophes. There is a similar project on Earth - the Svalbard Seedbank in...

Jupiter, Saturn and Venus have lined up in the evening sky and will continue to be prominent features throughout most of December, but this week, the trio will get a visitor. The easy-to-find planets, paired with the approaching peak of the Geminid meteor shower, make December a great month for evening stargazing. The only caveat is that the weather can be fickle during the long December nights, often offering frosty conditions on nights that are not cloudy. The moon started off the week next to Venus, and as the week progresses, it will continue to move up the chain, passing...

A Chinese rover traversing the Von Kármán crater on the far side of the Moon (the portion that faces away from Earth) has stumbled upon a “mystery hut,” according to Space.com, citing a report published by Our Space, a Chinese language science outreach channel affiliated with the China National Space Administration (CNSA). Yutu 2 spotted the strange cube-shaped object about 262 feet away to the north. A zoomed-in image provides a closer view of the object. The Chinese have called the cube-shaped object the “mystery hut.” The rover will take 2-3 lunar days (2-3 Earth months) to arrive at the...

The Yutu-2 rover is on a roll. It's been exploring the far side of the moon since early 2019, as part of China's Chang'e-4 lunar lander mission. It now has its eyes set on a strange-looking cube-shaped object it spotted in the distance. Yutu-2's view of the cube is fuzzy and far-off, so the object's true nature should become clearer as the rover gets closer. The most likely explanation is a boulder. This part of the moon is pockmarked with impact craters, which can feature quite a bit of chunky debris. The Chang'e-4 mission represents the first surface exploration of...

Explanation: Shaped like a cone tapering into space, the Earth's dark central shadow or umbra has a circular cross-section. It's wider than the Moon at the distance of the Moon's orbit though. But during the lunar eclipse of November 18/19, part of the Moon remained just outside the umbral shadow. The successive pictures in this composite of 5 images from that almost total lunar eclipse were taken over a period of about 1.5 hours. The series is aligned to trace part of the cross-section's circular arc, with the central image at maximum eclipse. It shows a bright, thin sliver of...

Submitted plans for the fission surface power system should include a uranium-fueled reactor core, a system to convert the nuclear power into usable energy, a thermal management system to keep the reactor cool, and a distribution system providing no less than 40 kilowatts of continuous electric power for 10 years in the lunar environment. Some other requirements include that it be capable of turning itself off and on without human help, that it be able to operate from the deck of a lunar lander, and that it can be removed from the lander and run on a mobile system and...

Alongside advances in space exploration, we’ve recently seen much time and money invested into technologies that could allow effective space resource utilization. And at the forefront of these efforts has been a laser-sharp focus on finding the best way to produce oxygen on the Moon. In October, the Australian Space Agency and NASA signed a deal to send an Australian-made rover to the Moon under the Artemis program, with a goal to collect lunar rocks that could ultimately provide breathable oxygen on the Moon. Although the Moon does have an atmosphere, it’s very thin and composed mostly of hydrogen, neon,...

You don't need a big showy celestial event like an eclipse to have a magical moment with the night sky. Sometimes, the subtler experiences are just as moving. Head out in the evening on Sunday, Nov. 7 to witness the scenic crescent moon posing with Venus nearby. While Sunday will see the moon and Venus at their snuggliest, you'll have an extended window for some great planet-spotting opportunities. "From Nov. 6th through the 11th, watch the moon glide past Venus, Saturn, and Jupiter after sunset in the south/southwest," NASA said. Jupiter and Saturn will appear to move closer to Venus...

The Moon is closer, always has a view of Earth, can exchange signals and deliverables hundreds of times more quickly than can be exchanged between Earth and Mars, and is easier to land on and take off from. On the Moon, solar power is a tremendous asset... In terms of the “bang for your buck” that you get from the Sun, the Moon is more than twice as efficient. In terms of the elements that both worlds are made out of, the chemical compositions of the compounds we find, and the isotope ratios of the materials present, the Moon and...

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea test launched its first domestically produced space rocket on Thursday in what officials describe as an important step in the country’s pursuit of a satellite launch program. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the three-stage Nuri rocket succeeded in delivering a dummy payload – a 1.5-ton block of stainless steel and aluminum – into orbit 600 to 800 kilometers (372 to 497 miles) above Earth....

Renderings have been released of an eye-opening Las Vegas resort that takes the form of a giant moon. Its name? 'Moon', naturally. According to the Canadian entrepreneurs behind it, it would cost £3.6billion ($5billion) to build and, with a height of 224 metres (735ft), would become the joint-second-tallest building in Sin City with the JW Marriott, which is currently the second-loftiest structure behind the 350m- (1,149ft) tall Strat Observation Tower. The celestial retreat – which would be the world's largest sphere - features 4,000 hotel rooms, a 'crater café', a spa, a casino, a lagoon and guests seeking a space-age...

In 2023, NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) will land near the western edge of the Nobile Crater at the Moon’s South Pole to map and explore the region’s surface and subsurface for water and other resources. Part of Artemis, VIPER will launch on a SpaceX Falcon-Heavy rocket for delivery to the Moon by Astrobotic’s Griffin lander under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative. The Moon’s South Pole is one of the coldest areas in our solar system. No prior missions to the Moon’s surface have explored it – scientists have thus far only studied the region using remote...

As part of the NextSTEP – 2 Appendix H program, NASA selected SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Dynetics to develop the HLS that will take the Artemis III astronauts back to the lunar surface. Initially, NASA hoped to award contracts to two of these companies but ultimately went with SpaceX due to budget constraints and timetables. In response, Blue Origin and Dynetics filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office (GAO). As part of the NextSTEP – 2 Appendix H program, NASA selected SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Dynetics to develop the HLS that will take the Artemis III astronauts back to...

NASA won't be ready to send astronauts to the moon by 2024 as planned because, among other reasons, their spacesuits won't be ready, the agency's internal watchdog found. NASA had officially planned to send astronauts back to the moon by 2024, but independent experts and its own acting administrator had already doubted that timeline was realistic. In a report this month, NASA's inspector general found that because of delays in spacesuit development, "a lunar landing in late 2024 as NASA currently plans is not feasible." The report blames a lack of funding, the COVID-19 pandemic and "technical challenges" for the...

A scientific paper published earlier this week stated that the Chandrayaan-2 satellite confirmed the presence of water molecules (H2o) and hydroxyl (OH) on the moon’s surface. The study’s findings were reported in the Current Science journal. The August 10 research report stated, “The initial data analysis from IIRS clearly confirms the presence of broad lunar hydration and unambiguous detection of OH and H2O signals between 29 degrees north and 62 degrees north latitude.” The imaging infrared spectrometer (IIRS) on the orbiter made the discovery. According to ISRO, the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter will continue its seven-year mission to explore the Moon’s surface...

NASA and Northrop Grumman of Dulles, Virginia, have finalized a contract to develop the Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) for Gateway, which will be a critical way station and outpost in orbit around the Moon as part of NASA’s Artemis program. NASA and its commercial and international partners are building Gateway to support science investigations and enable surface landings at the Moon, which will help prepare astronauts for future missions to Mars. The firm, fixed-price contract is valued at $935 million. Under the contract, Northrop Grumman will be responsible for attaching and testing the integrated HALO with the Power and...

The Air Force Research Laboratory's Space Vehicles Directorate has released a report detailing how the U.S. military is preparing to develop spacecraft and concepts of operations for missions beyond traditional orbits that could span all the way to the space surrounding the Moon... The report, titled “A Primer on Cislunar Space,” was written as a guide for military space professionals to help them better understand what cislunar space actually is and how they can better develop operating concepts and relevant capabilities for this relatively new area of operations... Cislunar space is generally defined as the area between Earth’s atmosphere and...

An incredibly detailed image of the Moon was composed by an Indian teen, who captured 55,000 images—racking up over 186 gigabytes on his laptop in the process—for a pastiche of celestial proportions. Sixteen-year-old Prathamesh Jaju from Pune, Maharashtra, shared his HDR (high-dynamic range) image of a waning crescent moon on Instagram. He admitted that amassing so many photos for his most detailed and clearest picture to date put his technology to the test. “[It] almost killed my laptop with the processing,” he said. The amateur astrophotographer began the project by capturing multiple videos of different small sections of the Moon...

FRIDAY, MAY 7Greet Mercury and Venus low in the west-northwest in the fading afterglow of sunset. You may first spot Venus, bright at magnitude –3.9, very low exactly west-northwest. As the sky darkens further, Mercury will come into view some 9° above Venus as shown below. Mercury fades from magnitude 0.0 to +0.5 this week.Much higher to their upper left, in the west as night falls, is little [currently very distant] Mars. [Mars is currently on the other side of the Sun, many millions of miles more distant than where it is on the same side as Earth] New Moon...