NASA’S Lunar Trailblazer Hitches Ride to the Moon to Map Water for Astronauts
New York TimesFEB 26
SpaceX Launches Water-Hunting Fleet to the Moon
Above: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches from launch pad 30A at the Kennedy Space Center, carrying the Intuitive Machines Moon Lander Athena. Image copyright: Manuel Mazzanti/Contributor/NurPhoto via Getty Images
The Facts
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, carrying NASA's Lunar Trailblazer orbiter and Intuitive Machines' Athena lunar lander on a mission to search for water on the moon.
The Lunar Trailblazer, a dishwasher-sized spacecraft weighing 440 pounds, will travel to lunar orbit for four months and spend two years mapping water distribution across the moon's surface using advanced infrared instruments from NASA and the University of Oxford.
Intuitive Machines' Athena lander, scheduled to touch down on March 6 near the lunar south pole, carries a deep-drilling experiment and will deploy the first-ever 4G/LTE network on the moon through Nokia's Lunar Surface Communication System.
The Spin
Narrative A
The comprehensive mapping of lunar water resources is a crucial step toward establishing a sustainable human presence on the moon. It has potential applications for creating breathable air, drinking water, and rocket fuel for future missions. Moreover, this mission shows private companies can revolutionize space exploration by dramatically reducing mission costs and increasing launch frequency.
Narrative B
India, China, Japan, and Russia have all set their sights on the moon, symbolizing a spirit of conquest. This mission heralds a new dawn of commercial exploitation and colonization of the Earth's satellite. Encouraging private players to send robotic landers and rovers to drill the moon opens up a new gate of destruction that will destroy all life on our planet.
Metaculus Prediction
The Controversies
Sign Up for Our Free NewslettersSign Up for Our Free Newsletters
Sign Up!
Sign Up Now!