China's National Space Administration (CNSA) has unveiled its ambitious plans for a lunar base, marking a significant milestone in the nation's space exploration endeavors. The concept for the lunar base outlines a multi-phase development spanning the next couple of decades, with the ultimate goal of establishing a sustained human presence on the Moon. The lunar base concept includes several key components: 1. **Initial Missions**: CNSA plans to conduct initial robotic missions to the lunar surface to scout potential landing sites and assess resource availability. These missions will lay the groundwork for future human exploration. 2. **Human Missions**: Building on the success of robotic missions, China intends to send astronauts to the Moon to conduct scientific research, technology demonstrations, and to begin construction of the lunar base infrastructure. These missions will likely involve multiple crewed landings over several years. 3. **Infrastructure Development**: The l...
A massive asteroid the size of a skyscraper will pass close by Earth on Friday, February 2. The size of the harmless space rock is estimated to be between 690 and 1,575 feet (210 and 480 meters) across, according to NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies. This means that the asteroid could be similar in size to the Empire State Building in New York or Chicago’s Willis Tower. The asteroid will pass within 1.7 million miles or 2.7 million km of Earth. However, its close proximity is of the least concern. The US space agency said the asteroid is a harmless fly-by as it will pass almost seven times the distance from Earth to the moon, according to the Associated Press. NASA confirmed that a 210-foot asteroid is hurtling towards Earth and is set to be a close call based on the expected trajectory. NASA estimates that the asteroid, which is called 2023 KW2, is the size of a large Boeing 747 airplane. It is expected to reach its closest distance to Earth at 4.5 million kilometers away. W...
Halo-Orbit Insertion (HOI) of its solar observatory spacecraft, Aditya-L1 was accomplished at 16.00 Hrs (approx) on January 6, 2024 (IST). The final phase of the maneuver involved firing of control engines for a short duration. The orbit of Aditya-L1 spacecraft is a periodic Halo orbit which is located roughly 1.5 million km from earth on the continuously moving Sun – Earth line with an orbital period of about 177.86 earth days. This Halo orbit is a periodic, three-dimensional orbit at L1 involving Sun, Earth and a spacecraft. This specific halo orbit is selected to ensure a mission lifetime of 5 years, minimising station-keeping manoeuvres and thus fuel consumption and ensuring a continuous, unobstructed view of sun. The Aditya-L1 mission is an Indian solar observatory at Lagrangian point L1 for “Observing and understanding the chromospheric and coronal dynamics of the Sun” in a continuous manner. Placing the Aditya-L1 in a halo orbit around L1 point has advantages as compared to...
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