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The US space agency has big ambitions for our satellite. Indeed, in addition to its Artemis lunar program, NASA hopes to reach the dark side of the Moon soon…
It would seem that the Moon will be at the heart of many space missions in the years to come. NASA is thus in the process of setting up the Artemis program, which aims to return men to our satellite by 2026. In this context, the agency has also deployed the Orion spacecraft. But so far, only China has been able to get to the far side. NASA, which found a piece of Chinese rocket crashed on its surface, hopes to catch up in this area.
Landing on the far side of the Moon is an extremely complex operation. This is because radio waves cannot reach this area. It is thus necessary to use a relay orbiter in order to communicate with the Earth. This technique was used by China in 2019, to allow the Chang’e 4 lander to drop the Yutu 2 rover into the Von Kármán crater.
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NASA therefore wants to take up this challenge, although it has lost contact with the CAPSTONE satellite, en route to the Moon. The agency thus plans to launch an uncrewed mission in 2025. The goal: to collect scientific data in a very unique region. The lander, named Draper Series 2should be designed based on the work done by an American subsidiary of the Tokyo-based company ispace.
Draper will be loaded with instruments. First of all, the lander will be equipped with two seismometers. These will aim to quantify the number of meteorite impacts hitting the far side of our satellite. Another suite of instruments, named LITMS (Lunar Interior Temperature and Materials), will examine how the Moon’s core can conduct heat and electricity.
Finally, the LuSEE (Lunar Surface ElectroMagnetics Experiment) experiment will study the electrostatic properties at the origin of the strange “dancing dust” observed on the surface. In order to stay in contact with the Earth, company plans to contract with Blue Canyon Technologies which will have to build two orbiters. The satellites will be deployed shortly before Draper’s moon landing.
Source: space.com
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