Join me on an exciting journey to the Moon, Mars, and beyond as I explore all aspects of myriad missions to these and other celestial bodies that NASA and various countries are undertaking. NASA has announced “A Return To The Moon Program By 2024” –Artemis– in which the initial lunar landing crew will include a woman astronaut. It will be an incredible ride, and I will keep you updated.
New Video!
China’s Zhurong Rover and NASA’s Perseverance Rover were both put to sleep… but why?
Both rovers arrived in orbit around Mars in February 2021, landed, and have been functioning well. In this video we will discuss what the rovers have accomplished so far and why the rovers were recently put to sleep. Watch the video to learn when the rovers will again start exploring the Mars surface.
Recent Videos
Three Mars missions were recently launched in July 2020. All are expected to arrive at Mars by February 2021. A fourth mission was planned by the ESA (European Space Agency) but was postponed due to Covid-19.
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The first was launched on July 19, 2020. Emirates Mars Mission, is an uncrewed United Arab Emirates Space Agency space exploration mission. Design, development and operations are led by the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre. “Hope Probe” will be the first probe to provide a complete picture of the Martian atmosphere and its layers when it reaches the red planet’s orbit in 2021. It will help answer key questions about the global Martian atmosphere and the loss of hydrogen and oxygen gases into space over the span of one Martian year.
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The second launch was the Tianwen-1 Mission atop a Long Mach 5 Rocket from Hainan Island’s Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on July 23, 2020. Tianwen-1 consists of an orbiter and a lander/rover duo, a combination of craft that had never before launched together toward the Red Planet. It is essentially three missions in one. The orbiter will remain in orbit around Mars while the lander/rover will descend to the surface of Mars. The solar-powered rover will spend about 90 Martian days (called sols) studying its surroundings in detail. One sol is roughly 40 minutes longer than an Earth day. It will do so with six different scientific instruments. The spacecraft will relay information to Earth from the rover, and collect science data of its own using seven instruments and two cameras.
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Finally, NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover roared off the Cape Canaveral launch pad aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on July 30, 2020. Perseverance is now on its way to seek signs of life and collect rock and soil samples for possible return to Earth by a future mission. Along with the rover is the Ingenuity helicopter, a technology that will be the first powered flight on Mars. The rover will arrive on the Red Planet Feb. 18, 2021. The mission addresses high-priority science goals for Mars exploration, including key astrobiology questions concerning the potential for life on Mars.
The ESA Mission was postponed for at least 26 months.
Reaching for the Moon will provide updates on all three missions during their journeys to Mars.
Artemis Program
With the Artemis program, NASA will land the first woman and next man on the Moon by 2024, using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before. NASA will collaborate with our commercial and international partners and establish sustainable exploration by the end of the decade. Then, NASA will use what we learn on and around the Moon to take the next giant leap – sending astronauts to Mars.
Mars
Mars is the ultimate near-term goal for many of the current and upcoming missions. Check out what international companies and space agencies are planning.
Apollo Revisited
There are countless lessons that were learned from the many Apollo missions during the 1960s. It’s worthwhile to consider the relevance of application of our experience with planning, logistics, execution, problem solving, and materials as we look toward our next Moon and Mars missions.
Hi. I’m Ed Grace. I spent ten years working on the Apollo Program while employed by MIT/Draper Labs, which had a NASA contract to design, develop and program the Primary Guidance Navigation and Control System used by the Apollo command and lunar modules. I was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for my work in helping to bring the Apollo 13 crew safely back to Earth after an oxygen tank exploded in the service module when the mission was 240,000 miles away from Earth.
Join us on our YouTube channel for updates on space exploration and NASA’s Artemis Return To The Moon By 2024 Program. We will also schedule interviews with individuals from leading corporate, government, media and academic institutions for our Reaching for the Moon podcast, hosted by me.
My guests will look back at space exploration history: Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, the International Space Station, and the Space Shuttle, and review where we are today. Guests will come from private spaceflight companies, including SpaceX, Blue Origin, Sierra Nevada, United Launch Alliance (Lockheed Martin & Boeing), Virgin Galactic, and many others.
Finally, we will look ahead to what is next, including the Moon, Mars, Titan, and other celestial bodies.