All articles tagged with #lunar crater
Researchers using imagery from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter identified a fresh 22‑meter crater on the Moon by comparing images from 2009 and 2012, revealing bright ejecta rays that contrast with the dark surface. The rays will gradually darken due to space weathering, showing that the Moon's surface is still being sculpted today. The finding helps refine current impact rates and aids in calibrating age estimates for lunar terrains.
NASA is considering building a large radio telescope in a crater on the far side of the Moon, using a concept called the Lunar Crater Radio Telescope (LCRT). The telescope would be constructed using cooperative rovers to deploy a wire mesh over the crater, creating a dish over 1 km wide. This ambitious project aims to overcome the limitations of Earth-based radio astronomy and could provide valuable insights into the early universe. While still in the research phase, the concept has received significant funding, and NASA continues to explore the feasibility of this lunar telescope.
The Chandrayaan-3 rover, Pragyan, has successfully navigated its first lunar obstacle, a 100mm-deep crater, marking a significant achievement for the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro). The rover's movements are not fully autonomous, requiring guidance from ground teams to overcome challenges. Each movement operation has a turnaround time of around five hours, taking into account factors such as the sun's rotation and limited data communication capabilities. Isro remains confident in the rover's progress and the potential for successful scientific outcomes.
NASA's ShadowCam, a camera designed to detect reflected light, has captured an image of a portion of the Marvin crater, just 16 miles from the moon's south pole. The camera's sensitivity allows it to reveal very dimly lit permanently shadowed regions, or PSRs, which could provide clues about lunar evolution and water trapped as ice in shadowed regions. The high-resolution images collected by ShadowCam could also assist site selection for crewed Artemis missions. ShadowCam is operating aboard the Korea Aerospace Research Institute's Danuri spacecraft, which entered lunar orbit in December 2022.