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A12 TECHNOLOGY
Monday 8 January 2024
Two companies will attempt the first US moon landings since the

Apollo missions a half-century ago

By MARCIA DUNN Scientists believe the south
AP Aerospace Writer pole’s permanently shad-
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) owed craters hold billions
— China and India scored of pounds (kilograms) of
moon landings, while Rus- frozen water that could be
sia, Japan and Israel ended used for drinking and mak-
up in the lunar trash heap. ing rocket fuel. That’s why
Now two private compa- the first moonwalkers in
nies are hustling to get the NASA’s Artemis program —
U.S. back in the game, named after Apollo’s twin
more than five decades sister in Greek mythology
after the Apollo program — will land there. NASA still
ended. has 2025 on the books for
It’s part of a NASA-support- that launch, but the Gen-
ed effort to kick-start com- eral Accountability Office
mercial moon deliveries, as suspects it will be closer to
the space agency focuses 2027.
on getting astronauts back Astrobotic will head to
there. the south pole on its sec-
“They’re scouts going to ond flight, carrying NASA’s
the moon ahead of us,” water-seeking Viper rover.
said NASA Administrator Bill And Intuitive Machines will
Nelson. return there on its second
Pittsburgh’s Astrobotic mission, delivering an ice
Technology is up first with a drill for NASA.
planned liftoff of a lander This photo provided by Astrobotic Technology shows the Peregrine lunar lander at the company’s Landing near the moon’s
Monday aboard a brand facility in Pittsburgh in October 2023. south pole is particularly
new rocket, United Launch Associated Press dicey.
Alliance’s Vulcan. Hous- “It’s so rocky and craggy
ton’s Intuitive Machines last April, followed by Rus- month in lunar orbit, before 6-foot-tall (1.9-meter-tall) and full of craters at the
aims to launch a lander in sia’s crash landing in Au- a landing is attempted on lander, named Peregrine south pole and mountain-
mid-February, hopping a gust. India triumphed a few Feb. 23. after the fastest bird, a fal- ous, that it’s very difficult
flight with SpaceX. days later near the south If there are rocket delays, con, will carry 20 research to find a lighted region to
Then there’s Japan, which polar region; it was the which already have stalled packages to the moon for touch down safely,” Alte-
will attempt to land in country’s second try after both missions, either com- seven countries, including mus said. “So you’ve got to
two weeks. The Japanese crashing in 2019. An Israeli pany could wind up there five for NASA and a shoe- be able to finesse that and
Space Agency’s lander nonprofit also slammed first. box-sized rover for Carn- just set it down right in the
with two toy-size rovers into the moon in 2019. “It’s going to be a wild, wild egie Mellon University. Per- right spot.”
had a big head start, shar- The United States has not ride,” promised Astrobotic’s egrine will aim for the mid- While Houston has long
ing a September launch attempted a moon landing chief executive John Thorn- latitudes’ Sinus Viscositatis, been associated with
with an X-ray telescope since Apollo 17’s Gene Cer- ton. or Bay of Stickiness, named space, Pittsburgh is a new-
that stayed behind in orbit nan and Harrison Schmitt, His counterpart at Intui- after the long-ago silica comer. To commemorate
around Earth. the last of 12 moonwalkers, tive Machines, Steve Alte- magma that formed the the Steel City, Astrobotic’s
If successful, Japan will explored the gray, dusty mus, said the space race nearby Gruithuisen Domes. lander will carry a Kenny-
become the fifth country surface in December 1972. is “more about the geo- Intuitive Machines’ six- wood amusement park
to pull off a lunar landing. Mars beckoned and the politics, where China is go- legged, 14-foot-tall (4-me- token, the winner of a
Russia and the U.S. did it re- moon receded in NASA’s ing, where the rest of the ter-tall) lander, Nova-C, will public vote that beat out
peatedly in the 1960s and rearview mirror, as the world’s going.” That said, target the moon’s south po- the Steelers’ Terrible Towel
70s. China has landed three space race between the “We sure would like to be lar region, also carrying five waved at football games,
times in the past decade — U.S. and the Soviet Union first.” experiments for NASA that dirt from Moon Township’s
including on the moon’s far came to a close. The U.S. The two companies have will last about two weeks. Moon Park, and a Heinz
side — and is returning to followed with a handful or been nose to nose since The company is targeting pickle pin.
the far side later this year to two of lunar satellites, but receiving nearly $80 million 80 degrees south latitude The lander is also carry-
bring back lunar samples. no controlled landers — un- each in 2019 under a NASA for touchdown. That would ing the ashes or DNA from
And just last summer, India til now. program to develop lunar be well within Antarctica 70 people, including “Star
did it. Only the U.S. has put Not only are Astrobotic and delivery services. Fourteen on Earth, Altemus noted, Trek” creator Gene Rod-
astronauts on the moon. Intuitive Machines looking companies are now under and 10 degrees closer to denberry and science fic-
Landing without wreck- to end America’s moon- contract by NASA. the pole than India landed tion writer Arthur C. Clarke.
ing is no easy feat. There’s landing drought, they’re Astrobotic’s four-legged, last summer. Another 265 people will be
hardly any atmosphere to vying for bragging rights represented on the rock-
slow spacecraft, and para- as the first private entity to et’s upper stage, which will
chutes obviously won’t land — gently — on the circle the sun once sepa-
work. That means a lander moon. rated from the lander. They
must descend using thrust- Despite its later start, Intui- include three original “Star
ers, while navigating past tive Machines has a fast- Trek” cast members, as well
treacherous cliffs and cra- er, more direct shot and as strands of hair from three
ters. should land within a week U.S. presidents: George
A Japanese millionaire’s of liftoff. It will take Astro- Washington, Dwight D.
company, ispace, saw its botic two weeks just to get Eisenhower and John F.
lander smash into the moon to the moon and another Kennedy.q