The first crewed mission in NASA’s Artemis lunar program could lift off within days, with a launch window opening on April 1, and while preparations are underway, the space agency is refocusing its plan to establish a human presence on the moon. NASA has announced major changes to its approach to moon landings that are expected to come to fruition in the coming years, including abandoning its plan to build an orbital station called Gateway. Read on to learn more about the agency’s new vision for the Moon, as well as other interesting science stories from this week.
Gateway outward, moon base inward
Just a few weeks later overhaul its Artemis programNASA this week announced yet more changes to its plans to put astronauts back on the Moon. The space agency is notably abandoning the Lunar Gateway project, which was to be the first space station to orbit the Moon. Gateway, an international collaboration, would not only support lunar surface exploration, but also deep space missions. But the writing has been on the wall for some time; in the Trump administration budget cuts proposed last MayGateway was among the programs selected for the chopping block. Now NASA is officially putting it on “pause” and instead plans to build a $20 billion moon base.
“NASA is committed to once again doing the impossible, returning to the Moon before President Trump’s term ends, building a lunar base, establishing a lasting presence and doing the other things necessary to ensure American leadership in space,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said at the agency’s Ignition event Tuesday.
There are three phases in the lunar base plan, according to NASA: first, use contractors to send rovers and instruments to the Moon through the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program; second, establish a “semi-habitable infrastructure,” with astronauts on the ground and collaboration with other space agencies; and finally the addition of “heavier infrastructure” to support long-term stays on the lunar surface, including the Italian Space Agency’s Multipurpose Habitats and the Canadian Space Agency’s Lunar Utility Vehicle. NASA has announced plans to launch this plan with crewed moon landings every six months following the Artemis V mission, currently planned for 2028.
Comet 41P draws a reversed card
A study published this week in The astronomical journal describes what would be the first observation of a comet reversing its rotation. Observations carried out several months apart in 2017 show that comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresák begins to rotate more slowly after a close flyby of the sun, before picking up speed again in December of the same year. Its rotation period, measured using NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, was about 46 to 60 hours in May 2017, but later observations from the Hubble Space Telescope showed it to be only 14 hours, according to NASA. Researchers say what likely happened was that the sun’s heat caused the comet’s ice to sublimate, sending gases leaking from its flanks.
“Gas jets escaping from the surface can act as small thrusters,” said author David Jewitt of the University of California, Los Angeles, in a statement. “If these jets are unevenly distributed, they can dramatically change the way a comet, especially a small one, spins.” Jewitt likens it to pushing a merry-go-round. “If it turns in one direction and you push against that direction, you can slow it down and reverse it.”
Comet 41P is thought to originate from the Kuiper Belt and pass through the inner solar system every 5.4 years. It is small, with a core of about 0.6 miles, and researchers have found that it has become less active in recent years, indicating that changes are occurring on the surface. Although it is thought to have been in this orbit for around 1,500 years, it now appears to be evolving rapidly, and rotational changes – which could cause structural instability if they continue – could mark the beginning of its end. “I expect this core to self-destruct very quickly,” Jewitt said.
Saturn in a new light
Stunning images of Saturn released this week by NASA, ESA and CSA provide a more detailed look at the many layers of the ringed planet’s “occupied” atmosphere. The images, which show storms, clouds at different depths, Saturn’s “ribbon wave” jet stream and more, were taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope in 2024. Read more about it here.
This article was originally published on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/nasa-pauses-its-lunar-gateway-plan-a-comet-reverses-its-spin-and-more-science-news-160000163.html?src=rss
