Space Bricks from meteorite dust

LEGO creates 'space bricks' made from meteorite dust – Physics World

Interesting article from Physics world, on a possible construction solution for bases on the Moon. Lego and a team of scientists from the ESA have created bricks from material from a crushed meteorite and a few other materials

• Space bricks from meteorite dust
• European Space Agency

I have started a Fediverse thread on this topic to ask if this technology could perhaps be combined with Boron Nitride in order to provide extra space radiation shielding.

• Boron Nitride

Tags

#Science,#Lego,#ESA,#Space,#Moon,#MeteoriteDust,#Construction

Intuitive Lunar Lander

“Intuitive Machines' IM-1 mission made history on Feb. 22, with the first successful Moon landing*

This will be the first of several missions before the next Atemis mission to fly a crewed mission around the moon, before the Artemis III mission to land humans on the moon in a few years.

Exciting times ahead. You can read more about the IM-1 mission here

Tags

#Space,#Moon,#Lander,#Mission,#IntuitiveMachines,#NASA

Japan SLIM Mission

This week saw Japan become only the 5th country to land on the moon. This has been achieved using their SLIM mission, Smart Lander for Investigating the Moon (SLIM).

At the time of writing this, the mission status is that they landed on the moon, but there are issues with the solar panels preventing power to the lander. However, landing on the moon is very difficult. So this success proved the technology worked.

More information will be available in due course, in the meantime there is a link to the mission website below.

Links

• SLIM Mission
  • Latest Information

Tags

#Science,#Moon,#Japan,#SLIM,#Mission

Biochemistry of Enceladus

Observations of Elemental Composition of Enceladus Consistent with Generalized Models of Theoretical Ecosystems | bioRxiv

Paper on BiorXiv on the chemistry found on Enceladus. You can read this here

I found a link to this on the Fediverse and the original post can also be found here

This can also be discussed on Science Forums

Tags

#Science,#Chemistry,#BioChemistry,#Space,#Moon,#Enceladus

India Moon mission

There doesn't seem to have been much in the news about this, but India's mission to the moon is past another critical stage.

This is really important for the country but hopefully also for humanity as with any luck we will actually start to collaborate on exploration.

Tags

#India,#Moon,#Mission

Artemis 2 training

With the 2024 Artemis 2 mission fast approaching, the mission teams are hard at work training for this important mission to fly humans around the moon and return safely to Earth. Read more here

Tags

#NASA,#Moon,#Mission,#Atemis,#Artemis2,#2024

JWST finds water on Enceladus

Posted to the Fediverse on 30/5/2023. The James Webb Space Telescope has potentially found water on Enceladus, one of the moons of Saturn. This is a great discovery and shows there is water on other planets. You can read original fediverse post via link below.

• Original post

The following graphic was also part of the post, so reproducing here too.

Feel free to discuss further either tag me on fedi @zleap@qoto.org. Or you can start a thread on Science Forums

Sorry, I don't use mainstream social media. This is 2023, the fediverse provides intellectual content.

Tags

#Science,#Astronomy.#JWST,#Saturn,#Moon,#Enceladus,#Water

The Damage to Lunar Orbiting Spacecraft Caused by the Ejecta of Lunar Landers

This is an interesting paper looking at The Damage to Lunar Orbiting Spacecraft Caused by the Ejecta of Lunar Landers.. The Link was posted to the Fediverse.

Links

• arXiv
• Paper arXiv:2305.12234
• Science Forums
  • Science forum thread

Just highlights the many dangers of space exploration, we need to protect any spacecraft from moon ejecta. How we do this will of course require more research and data, as I guess we can't just go up and collect a load of moon dust and bring to earth, probably not as simple as that as we would probably need to simulate the gravity difference on the moon.

I have started a discussion on science forums around this as I am just speculating about how we can research this. I would guess that once we do have data, then we can use AI to help with simulations.

Tags

#Moon,#SpaceFlight,#Missions.#MoonDust,#Electa,#SpaceCraft,#Damage