STP14 - China On The Moon And A History Of Robotic Landings

This week's big news story is that China have landed their third spacecraft on the moon and this one plans to return a sample from the surface. As a result of this, Emily and Dave have a look back at the history of the robotic missions to the moon.

This week in space:

SpaceX 100th successful Falcon 9 launch 24th November: 

SpaceX Starship SN8 engine static firing test 24th November: 

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’s H-IIA F43 launch vehicle launch:
News report: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2020/11/japan-launches-data-relay-satellite/

Orion Delays: https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Orion_faces_could_face_months_of_delay_following_power_unit_failure_999.html

Arecibo Collapes: https://www.space.com/arecibo-radio-telescope-collapses

Chang'e 5 Landing: 

Further Reading:

Jay Gallantine's Books: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2944289.Jay_Gallentine

List of missions to the moon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_missions_to_the_Moon
Luna Program: https://www.lpi.usra.edu/lunar/missions/luna/
Ranger Program: https://www.lpi.usra.edu/lunar/missions/ranger/
Surveyor Program: https://www.lpi.usra.edu/lunar/missions/surveyor/
Zond Missions: https://www.lpi.usra.edu/lunar/missions/zond/
Lunar Orbiter Program: https://www.lpi.usra.edu/lunar/missions/orbiter/
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter: https://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/leagilewg2008/presentations/oct28pm/Vondrak.pdf
GRAIL: https://www.lpi.usra.edu/features/grail/120512/
The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer: https://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/leag2012/presentations/Elphic.pdf

Image credit: China National Space Administration/CLEP

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Emily Carney

A veteran of the United States Navy, Carney became a freelance writer back in 2008 and started a blog called This Space Available, which is hosted by the National Space Society.

In 2011, Carney founded a facebook group Space Hipsters. Originally intended to be a place to share news and insights amongst friends, this community has now grown to close to 20,000 members including astronauts, engineers, scientists, historians and space flight enthusiasts from around the globe.

Blog: https://space.nss.org/category/this-space-available/
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/EmilyLCarney
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EmilyCarneySpace/
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Dave Giles

Giles is a singer/songwriter from London, England who has always had a passion for space flight. Since his early years he’s been looking skyward and though he ended up wielding a guitar for a living, space exploration is alway on his mind and one of his most popular songs is about astronaut Gene Cernan, ‘The Last Man On The Moon’.

In 2019 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11, Giles visited all of the crewed space vehicles flown by NASA from Freedom 7 to the Space Shuttle Orbiters.

Full info: https://www.davejgiles.com
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/davejgiles
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davejgilesmusic
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