Missions

When the Artemis program returns humans to the Moon in (hopefully) a few years' time, there are considerable logistics that need to be addressed for keeping such fragile beings alive in such a hostile environment.  Not least is the issue of food. Space agencies involved in the International Space Station are very experienced, by now, in providing pre-packed provisions, but there are advantages to having access to fresh food, including to both physical and mental health.If lunar soil were to prove an amenable medium for…

Scientists for the first time have grown seeds in soil from the moon - samples retrieved during NASA missions in 1969 and 1972 - in an achievement that heralds the promise of using earthly plants to support human outposts on other worlds.Researchers said on Thursday they planted seeds of a diminutive flowering weed called Arabidopsis thaliana in 12 small thimble-sized containers each bearing a gram of moon soil, more properly called lunar regolith, and watched as they sprouted and grew. Lunar regolith, with its sharp…

When the Apollo 15 and 17 missions returned to Earth with pieces of the Moon in 1971 and 1972, some of the samples were deliberately set aside for the future.Flash forward half a century and these samples are finally being studied.   In 2019, shortly after an upcoming Artemis mission to the Moon was announced, nine teams of researchers were selected to analyze the untouched rocks and soil brought back by the Apollo missions.Some of the vacuum-sealed samples have never been opened on Earth before. Others have been…

NASA has granted three more missions — Crew-7, Crew-8, and Crew-9 — to SpaceX as part of its Commercial Human Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contract for crew transportation services to the International Space Station (ISS). This takes the space agency's total number of crewed missions to the ISS to nine, including the three successful operational trips over the last two years. The original $2.6-billion (roughly Rs. 19,700 crore) contract was awarded to SpaceX in 2014 for the development of American crewed launch…

The European Space Agency on Wednesday ended cooperation with Russia on three missions to the Moon due to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, following a previous decision to do the same for a Mars mission.The ESA said it would "discontinue cooperative activities" on Luna-25, 26 and 27, a series of Russian lunar missions on which the European agency had aimed to test new equipment and technology.In late March, collaboration on ExoMars, a plan to land a rover on Mars to drill into the soil and search for signs of life, was…

New State Mobile — formerly known as PUBG New State— has introduced new story missions as part of the Survivor Pass Volume 4 that has arrived with the update 0.9.24. The popular battle royale game, which was launched last year, allows gamers who have upgraded to the premium Survivor Pass to play new story missions that land every week and unlock special rewards. The protagonist for this season is biker Arnie ‘Mayhem' Kopelson, according to Krafton.On Tuesday, Krafton revealed that gamers who complete Kopelson's weekly…

Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) Royale Pass Month 10 is now available to purchase within the game. It brings a plethora of perks, weapon skins, gear sets, and more that can be unlocked by earning RP points from playing online. This royale pass offers two tiers of rewards, including free rewards that any player can earn without purchasing it. There are also the Elite Pass and the Elite Plus Pass, which offer rarer drops. The Royale Pass Month 10 went live on April 21 and will be available for the next four weeks.BGMI…