MASS

 

Blog for Monday, July 24, 2023

Summer seems to be starting to wind down but you wouldn’t think it was based on the high temperatures. The grass has recovered from the drought and is growing like a jungle. Thanks for the aerobic exercise opportunity each week, Nature.

In fact, grass cutting is the cause of the day late post this week, after cutting a neighbor’s grass on Sunday I couldn’t muster the energy to compose the post.

As a long term “heads-up”, I wanted to say that Joe DalSanto, astronomer at COD, is planning to give a talk titled, “The View From Earth, 400 Years of Astronomical Adventure” on Saturday, Oct 14 at 7:30 to 9 PM at the college. Reserve the date if the talk is of interest to you. It is free.

3 unmanned lunar landers will be heading for the moon – On July 20 we celebrated 54 years since Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon, now there soon will be 3 probes headed back for a soft landing. India successfully launched their Chandrayaan-3 probe on July 14 and it is scheduled to land at the moon’s south pole on August 23. Russia will soon be launching Luna25 on August 11. It has been over 45 years since their last moon mission. It will be headed for the Buguslavsky crater near the south pole and intends to search for signs of water ice. Finally, Japan’s SLIM Sniper probe is targeting an August 26 launch. The name, Sniper, comes from the spacecraft’s unique onboard camera’s ability to identify craters, measure positioning and pinpoint a landing. The primary goal is to demonstrate precise navigation and its shock absorbing landing legs. The US won’t be completely shut-out from lunar landings this year, we have 2 upcoming CLIPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) missions scheduled later this year. In the third quarter, Intuitive Machines will be launching its Nova-C lander on a Falcon 9 rocket and landing at Malapert A crater near the south pole and Astrobotic is planning a fourth quarter mission to land its Peregrine Lander. Peregrine is launching on the new Vulcan rocket and intends to land near the Gruithuisen Domes.