Washington, Sep 1 (IANS) US space agency NASA on Friday said that its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft has imaged a new crater on the Moon’s surface that is likely the impact site of Russia’s Luna 25 mission.

Luna-25, which  took off atop a Soyuz-2.1b rocket from the Vostochny launch facility in Russia at 2.10 a.m. Moscow time (4.40 a.m. IST) on August 11, TASS news agency reported.

Russia’s Luna Lander mission, which launched on August 11 was expected to be on the Moon’s South Pole along with India’s Chandrayaan-3. However,  during its descent, Luna 25 experienced an anomaly that caused it to impact the surface of the Moon on August 19.

Roscosmos, Russia’s space agency, published an estimate of the impact point on August 21. 

LRO’s most recent “before” image of the area was captured in June 2022; thus, the new crater formed sometime after that date. Since this new crater is close to the Luna 25 estimated impact point, the LRO team concludes it is likely to be from that mission, rather than a natural impactor.

“The new crater is about 10 metres in diameter and is located at 57.865 degrees south latitude and 61.360 degrees east longitude at an elevation of about minus 360 metres,” NASA said. 

“The impact point was on the steep (greater than 20-degree grade) inner rim of Pontecoulant G crater, about 400 kilometres short of Luna 25’s intended landing point at 69.545 degrees south, 43.544 degrees east,” it added.

Russia aimed to return to the Moon with its Luna 25 lander mission after 47 years. Its last lunar mission, Luna-24 was launched in 1976, during the former Soviet Union period. 

Meanwhile, Roscosmos has planned Luna-26 for 2027 and Luna-27 for 2028, Luna-28 in 2030 or later. The country is also aiming at a manned mission and the construction of a lunar base, along with other countries such as the US, India and China.

Tirupati, Sep 1 (IANS) Ahead of the crucial launch of Aditya L1 mission, aimed at studying the Sun, scientists of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) offered prayers at Tirumala temple here on Friday

The scientists from the space agency visited Sri Venkateswara temple atop Tirumala Hills in the morning.

They prayed for the success of the mission, which is scheduled to be launched on September 2 at 11.50 a.m. from the Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh.

Aditya L1 spacecraft is designed for providing remote observations of the solar corona and in situ observations of the solar wind at L1 (Sun-Earth Lagrangian point), which is about 1.5 million kilometres from the earth.

The first space-based Indian observatory to study the Sun would be launched by PSLV-C57 rocket.

It’s a common practice for the ISRO scientists to offer prayers at the famous hill shrine ahead of major missions.

In July, they performed puja at the temple ahead of the launch of  Chandrayaan-3.

The Moon mission scripted history by successfully landing on the lunar surface on August 23. India became the only country to accomplish soft landing on the Moon’s South Pole.

Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh), Sep 1 (IANS) The Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), S. Somanath, on Friday offered prayers at a temple near the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, for the success of India’s rocket mission to the Sun.

Ahead of the crucial launch of the Aditya L1 mission scheduled on Saturday, aimed at studying the Sun, Somanath offered prayers at the Chengalamma Parameshwari temple near the spaceport.

“I came here to pray to Chengalamma Parameshwari for giving us strength to make this launch successful,” he told reporters after offering prayers.

Earlier, a group of ISRO scientists had offered prayers at the Tirumala temple on Friday morning.

Somanath said the countdown has started for the PSLV-C57 Aditya-L1 mission, which will be launched at 11.50 a.m. on Saturday.

“It will take almost an hour for the satellite to reach the required location and inject. The Aditya L1 mission is to study the Sun. It will take another 125 days to travel from Earth to the L1 point from where the satellite will look at the Sun,” he said.

Replying to another query, the ISRO chief said the date for Chandrayaan-4 has not been decided yet.

“We will announce soon. Something is there,” he said with a smile.

On the Chandrayaan-3 mission, Somanath said that lunar rover Pragyan is working very well, moving around the Moon and doing rotations which will go on till September 3.

Earlier, some scientists from the space agency visited the Sri Venkateswara temple atop Tirumala hills on Friday morning and prayed for the success of the Aditya L1 mission .

The Aditya-L1 spacecraft is designed for providing remote observations of the solar corona and in situ observations of the solar wind at L1 (Sun-Earth Lagrangian point), which is about 1.5 million km from the Earth.

The first space-based Indian observatory to study the Sun would be launched by a PSLV-C57 rocket.

It’s a common practice for the ISRO scientists to offer prayers at the famous hill shrine ahead of major missions.

In July, they had performed ‘puja’ at the temple with a miniature model of Chandrayaan-3.

The Moon mission scripted history by successfully landing on the lunar surface on August 23, as India became the only country to accomplish soft landing on the Moon’s South Pole.

Washington, Aug 31 (IANS) A team of NASA scientists is in the final stages of preparing for the arrival of the first US asteroid sample — slated to land on Earth in September on OSIRIS-REx spacecraft.

OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security–Regolith Explorer), the first US mission to collect a sample from an asteroid, will return to Earth on September 24 with material from asteroid Bennu. It is carrying an estimated 8.8 ounces of rocky material collected from the surface of the asteroid Bennu in 2020. 

A mockup of an OSIRIS-REx sample capsule was dropped on Wednesday from an aircraft and landed at the drop zone at the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range in the desert outside Salt Lake City. This was part of the mission’s final major test prior to the arrival of the actual capsule.

“We are now mere weeks away from receiving a piece of solar system history on Earth, and this successful drop test ensures we’re ready,” said Nicola Fox, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, in a statement. 

“Pristine material from asteroid Bennu will help shed light on the formation of our solar system 4.5 billion years ago, and perhaps even on how life on Earth began,”Fox added.

This drop test follows a series of earlier rehearsals — capsule recovery, spacecraft engineering operations, and sample curation procedures — conducted earlier this spring and summer.

Now, with less than four weeks until the spacecraft’s arrival, the OSIRIS-REx team is nearing the end of rehearsals and ready for the actual delivery.

The asteroid sample will help researchers to learn about how our planet and solar system formed, as well as the origin of organics that may have led to life on Earth.

Travelling about 27,650 mph, OSIRIS-REx is expected to enter Earth’s atmosphere at 10:42 a.m. EDT (8:12 pm IST) on September 24.  

“We are now in the final leg of this seven-year journey, and it feels very much like the last few miles of a marathon, with a confluence of emotions like pride and joy coexisting with a determined focus to complete the race well,” said Rich Burns, project manager for OSIRIS-REx at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Once retrieved, the sample will be documented, cared for, at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, and later distributed for analysis to scientists worldwide.

Chennai, Aug 31 (IANS) Is India’s moon rover being playful on the Chandamama? It seems so, the Indian space agency said.

For many kids in India, the moon is usually referred to Chandamama as their mothers show it to them while feeding them.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) recently rotated the moon rover for a safe navigation route. The movement was captured by a camera on the moon lander and was transmitted to the ISRO.

Uploading the video on the social media platform X, the ISRO said: “It feels as though a child is playfully frolicking in the yards of Chandamama, while the mother watches affectionately. Isn’t it?”

However, looks may be deceptive, as the 26kg rover is actually into serious business.

According to the ISRO, one more instrument on the rover confirmed the presence of sulphur (S) in the region through another technique.

The Alpha Particle X-ray Spectroscope (APXS) has detected S, as well as other minor elements.

“This finding by Chandrayaan-3 compels scientists to develop fresh explanations for the source of Sulphur (S) in the area: intrinsic?, volcanic?, meteoritic?,……?” the ISRO said.

Recently, ISRO said the rover has found the presence of oxygen, aluminium, sulphur and other materials near the lunar south pole, while investigation regarding the presence of hydrogen is underway, the Indian space agency added.

According to the ISRO, the Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) instrument onboard Chandrayaan-3 rover has made the first-ever in-situ measurements on the elemental composition of the lunar surface near the south pole.

These in-situ measurements confirm the presence of sulphur in the region unambiguously, something that was not feasible by the instruments onboard the orbiters. LIBS is a scientific technique that analyses the composition of materials by exposing them to intense laser pulses. A high-energy laser pulse is focused onto the surface of a material, such as a rock or soil.

The laser pulse generates an extremely hot and localised plasma, ISRO said. The collected plasma light is spectrally resolved and detected by detectors such as Charge Coupled Devices. Since each element emits a characteristic set of wavelengths of light when it’s in a plasma state, the elemental composition of the material is determined.

According to ISRO, preliminary analysis, have unveiled the presence of aluminum (Al), sulphur (S), calcium (Ca), iron (Fe), chromium (Cr), and titanium (Ti) on the lunar surface.

Further measurements have also revealed the presence of manganese (Mn), silicon (Si), and oxygen (O).

LIBS payload is developed at the Laboratory for Electro-Optics Systems (LEOS)/ISRO, Bengaluru.

India on August 23 reached the Moon with its lander safely landing on the lunar soil in a text book style. Later the rover rolled down and started doing experiments.