NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter has made its last flight on Mars. The plucky technology demonstrator that engineers were not sure would fly at all in the thin Martian atmosphere made 72 flights over almost three years. A damaged rotor blade brought an end to its flying days.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency confirmed today that the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM, achieved its primary objective of demonstrating pinpoint landing accuracy. By JAXA’s criteria, that alone makes SLIM fully successful even though an engine malfunction caused it to land upside down in a position where the solar cells cannot recharge the battery. It operated for only for a few hours, but they are holding out hope operations may be restored when the sun angle changes.
Belgium became the 34th country to sign the Artemis Accords today. The Accords are a set of non-binding principles of responsible behavior on the Moon. Belgium joins ten other members of the European Space Agency in agreeing to them.
Here are links to all the articles published on SpacePolicyOnline.com over the last week, January 15-21, 2024, including our “What’s Happening in Space Policy” for this coming week. Click on each title to read the entire article.
Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of January 21-27, 2024 and any insight we can offer about them. The Senate is in session this week. The House is in recess except for pro forma sessions.
Astrobotic CEO John Thornton today acknowledged disappointment that the Peregrine lunar lander did not achieve its goal of landing on the Moon, but was upbeat about how they responded to the situation and what it means for the future. Later this year the company is scheduled to land a very expensive NASA payload on the Moon, the VIPER rover, and Thorton is confident that mission will succeed.
Japan became the fifth country to successfully soft land on the Moon today. The Small Lander for Investigating Moon, SLIM, touched down as scheduled, but its solar cells are not delivering power. That means the lander’s useful lifetime is limited to how long the battery lasts. Nonetheless it is transmitting data back to Earth as are two tiny probes that were ejected just before landing.
Axiom Space’s third private astronaut flight is underway with the first all-European space crew. Astronauts from the Italian, Turkish and Swedish Air Forces are on their way to the International Space Station with Axiom’s commander, a dual citizen of Spain and the United States. After docking on Saturday, they will spend 14 days aboard the ISS conducting experiments and enjoying the experience.
With no drama, the Senate and House passed another Continuing Resolution this afternoon to keep the government operating for a few more weeks. For the third time since September, House Republican leadership was able to get a CR passed despite strong opposition from the ultra-conservative wing of their party. Without the bill, agencies funded by four of the 12 regular appropriations bills would have had to close down operations at midnight tomorrow.
The first U.S. lunar lander since the Apollo era is about to meet its end. Astrobotic’s Peregrine suffered a mission-ending propulsion failure soon after launch earlier this month. Its trajectory brought it back towards Earth and Astrobotic was able to steer it enough to direct it to reenter Earth’s atmosphere and burn up this afternoon. Peregrine is just the latest of several small, comparatively inexpensive lunar probes to fail, but that has not deterred others from trying. Japan’s next attempt is tomorrow and several U.S. private sector probes are queueing up.