This illustration shows an imagined view of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft approaching the asteroids Didymos and Dimorphos. The smaller spacecraft is LICIACube, built by the Italian Space Agency.
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins, APL/Steve Gribben

Scientists and engineers have designed spacecraft for many different purposes. Some bring people safely to the moon or the International Space Station. Others roam far into space to send pictures back to Earth for scientists to study. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) built the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) as a punching bag! DART was a spacecraft that intentionally collided with an asteroid.

Scientists planned the mission to find out whether a spacecraft collision could change an asteroid’s path through space. DART’s target asteroid was not a threat to Earth. But in the future, this method could be used to redirect a threatening asteroid away from Earth. Scientists are studying the effects of the DART impact to determine how the collision affected the asteroid’s path.

DART was a type of spacecraft called an impactor. An impactor smashes into the target it is studying, such as a planet, moon, or asteroid. Usually, scientists study the effects of the impact to learn about the physical characteristics of the target. Because DART was designed to move its target, it is considered a kinetic impactor.

DART traveled to Didymos, an asteroid that is about ½ mile (780 meters) wide. Didymos has a moonlet—a second, tiny asteroid in orbit around it—called Dimorphos. Dimorphos is sometimes nicknamed “Didymoon.” Dimorphos is 525 feet (160 meters) wide. Pairs of asteroids such as this one are known as binary systems. Scientists think about 15 percent of the asteroids closest to Earth are part of a binary system. Didymos and Dimorphos were chosen for the DART mission because their position is practical for a spacecraft to reach and because changes to Dimorphos’s orbit can be measured from Earth.

On Sep. 26, 2022, DART smashed into Dimorphos at a speed of 4.1 miles (6.6 kilometers) per second. Telescopes on Earth observed a bright flash at the moment of impact. Before the impact, Dimorphos orbited Didymos once every 11 hours and 55 minutes. The impact was expected to shorten this period and to move Dimorphos slightly closer to Didymos.

DART carried only one instrument, a camera. The camera helped it to steer automatically toward its target. DART also carried a shoebox-sized spacecraft called LICIACube. DART released LICIACube before it impacts Dimorphos. LICIACube photographed the impact test and its aftermath.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launched DART on Nov. 24, 2021. The mission was sponsored by NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office. The Italian Space Agency (ASI) built LICIACube. It is Italy’s first deep space probe.

James Webb Space Telescope image of NGC 3324
Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI

The first images from the James Webb Space Telescope have arrived! They are starry, stellar, and dazzling images of never before seen nebulae and star-forming regions of the universe. The images are quite the upgrade from the images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, showing deep space in exquisite detail. U.S. President Joe Biden released the first images on Monday, June 11, 2022.

The James Webb Space Telescope was successfully launched into space atop an Ariane 5 rocket on Dec. 25, 2021. The James Webb Space Telescope, abbreviated JWST, is an observatory replacing some capabilities of the Hubble Space Telescope. The Hubble Space Telescope is a powerful orbiting telescope that provides sharp images of heavenly bodies. Webb’s main mirror is 6.5 meters (21 feet) across. Webb will have about seven times larger light-collecting area than Hubble. However, Webb is designed to study infrared light, a type of light wave with longer wavelengths than those of visible light. Thus, Webb will not replace Hubble’s visible light capabilities.

Webb is a collaboration between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The Space Telescope Science Institute, which currently operates Hubble, is managing Webb’s science operations. The telescope is named after James Webb, the former NASA administrator who conceived and directed the Apollo program for most of the 1960’s. Webb has been a work in progress since 1996 and its deployment was delayed many times over the years.

The Webb telescope will enable scientists to study the history of the universe, nearly all the way back to a cosmic explosion called the big bang. It will collect information on the first stars and galaxies that formed after the big bang, the formation of planetary systems, and the evolution of planets within the solar system.

Southern Ring Nebula
Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI

The first images NASA released show a star-forming region in the Milky Way called the Carina Nebula captured in infrared light. A nebula is a cloud of dust particles and gases in space. The term nebula comes from the Latin word for cloud. Other images show the Southern Ring Nebula in near-infrared light and mid-infrared light. This image shows the remains of a white dwarf star, similar to our Sun.

Webb is equipped with several specialized cameras and spectrometers, instruments that spread out light into a band of wavelengths called a spectrum. Astronomers can study such a spectrum for signs of light given off by certain molecules or atoms. Webb also has a primary (main) mirror made of many segments, which was folded up to fit in the launch rocket. The mirror is to unfold and adjust to its proper shape before Webb reaches its permanent orbit. A large sun shield, about the size of a tennis court, will help prevent the infrared light from the sun, and the reflected sunlight from Earth and the moon, from interfering with observations. Webb is specifically designed to cool down its sensors to gather better data.

After launch, Webb traveled to a Lagrange point, a special point in space where the gravitational pulls of the sun and Earth are in balance. Webb is to remain there, 930,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) from Earth, observing the skies for up to 10 years. During its primary mission, Webb is designed to be the world’s premier space observatory, used by thousands of astronomers worldwide.

The first image of Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy.
Credit: © EHT Collaboration

Finally, the faceless monster lurking at the center of our galaxy has been photographed. Sounds like science fiction? It’s true! On Thursday, May 12, scientists with the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) team published a photograph of Sagittarius A* (saj uh TAIR eeuhs AY star). Sagittarius A* is a supermassive (huge) black hole in the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way.

A black hole is a region of space whose gravitational force is so strong that nothing can escape from it, not even light. The event horizon is the “point of no return” for a black hole: Anything that crosses this horizon is sucked into the black hole forever. Supermassive black holes at least a million times more massive than the sun lurk at the center of many galaxies.

The EHT is a global network of ground-based telescopes that use a technique called radio interferometry to produce images of black hole event horizons. The collection of radio telescopes participating in the EHT project stretches from Hawaii to Europe and all the way south to Antarctica. Several dozen of the world’s leading observatories and universities contribute to the project. Supercomputers process the image data using special algorithms in a process called correlation.

Astronomers began using the EHT to make observations of Sagittarius A* in 2017. In 2019, the EHT released an image it had captured of the event horizon surrounding the supermassive black hole at the center of the Messier 87 galaxy (M87*). It was the first time an event horizon had been photographed.

If light can’t escape a black hole, how did EHT photograph M87* or Sagittarius A*? Technically, it didn’t: all black holes are invisible and cannot be directly photographed. But matter trapped in orbit near the event horizon is extremely energized and emits large amounts of light. The black hole lurks in the circular “shadow” within the halo of high-energy matter. Thus, the EHT can take a picture of a black hole much as we can take a picture of a doughnut hole.

Despite being closer to Earth, Sagittarius A* was still harder to image than M87*. Sagittarius A* is still 27,000 light-years from Earth. It’s also more than 1,000 times smaller and less massive than M87*. So, although the high-energy matter is orbiting both black holes at about the same speed, the matter completes an orbit around Sagittarius A* in a matter of minutes. Furthermore, Sagittarius A* is “quieter”: it emits far less energy than M87*. All these factors made it difficult for EHT to capture an image of it.

Now that EHT has imaged two black holes, astronomers can compare them. Both look remarkably similar, despite their differing sizes. Both confirm what was predicted by Einstein’s theory of relativity. But plenty of questions remain. For example, are the “blobs” in the picture actual elements, or are they artifact of the correlating process? The EHT is also considering the feasibility of creating a short video of Sagittarius A* by stringing together multiple consecutive images. And plenty more supermassive black holes are waiting for their photographic debut. A major observation campaign that concluded earlier this year featured even more telescopes. Expect more exciting results soon regarding these most extreme objects in the universe.

An artist’s conception shows the James Webb Space Telescope.
Credit: NASA

The James Webb Space Telescope was successfully launched into space atop an Ariane 5 rocket on Dec. 25, 2021. The James Webb Space Telescope, abbreviated JWST, is an observatory that will replace some capabilities of the Hubble Space Telescope. The Hubble Space Telescope is a powerful orbiting telescope that provides sharp images of heavenly bodies. Webb’s main mirror is 6.5 meters (21 feet) across. Webb will have about seven times larger light-collecting area than Hubble. However, Webb is designed to study infrared light, a type of light wave with longer wavelengths than those of visible light. Thus, Webb will not replace Hubble’s visible light capabilities.

The Ariane 5 rocket is used chiefly to launch commercial satellites. The rocket was developed by the European Space Agency and a European company known as Arianespace.
European Space Agency

Webb is a collaboration between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The Space Telescope Science Institute, which currently operates Hubble, is to manage Webb’s science operations, which are expected to begin in summer 2022. The telescope is named after James Webb, the former NASA administrator who conceived and directed the Apollo program for most of the 1960’s. Webb has been a work in progress since 1996 and its deployment was delayed many times over the years.

The Webb telescope will enable scientists to study the history of the universe, nearly all the way back to a cosmic explosion called the big bang. It will collect information on the first stars and galaxies that formed after the big bang, the formation of planetary systems, and the evolution of planets within the solar system.

Webb is equipped with several specialized cameras and spectrometers, instruments that spread out light into a band of wavelengths called a spectrum. Astronomers can study such a spectrum for signs of light given off by certain molecules or atoms. Webb also has a primary (main) mirror made of many segments, which was folded up to fit in the launch rocket. The mirror is to unfold and adjust to its proper shape before Webb reaches its permanent orbit. A large sun shield, about the size of a tennis court, will help prevent the infrared light from the sun, and the reflected sunlight from Earth and the moon, from interfering with observations. Webb is specifically designed to cool down its sensors to gather better data.

After launch, Webb is to travel to a Lagrange point, a special point in space where the gravitational pulls of the sun and Earth are in balance. Webb is to remain there, 930,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) from Earth, observing the skies for up to 10 years. During its primary mission, Webb is designed to be the world’s premier space observatory, used by thousands of astronomers worldwide.

The Parker Solar Probe approaches the sun in this artist’s depiction. The probe’s path takes it nearer to the sun than any other human-made object, allowing it to make close-up observations of solar activity.
NASA

The Parker Solar Probe has done the unthinkable. It became the first spacecraft to touch the sun! Scientists reported the announcement on Dec. 14, 2021, at the press conference at the 2021 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana. The probe was built and operated by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. The probe flew through the upper atmosphere of the sun, called the corona, to collect samples. The samples will allow scientists to understand more about the sun, just like landing on the moon paved the way for scientists to learn about the moon.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launched the Parker Solar Probe in 2018. The probe completed its first orbit of the sun in 2019. The probe is the fastest human-made object in the solar system. The sun’s gravity is expected to accelerate the probe to extreme speeds of up to 430,000 miles (700,000 kilometers) per hour. Three years after the launch, the probe has arrived at the sun.

The goals of the mission are 1) to study how energy and heat flow through the corona; 2) to gather information on plasma (the gaslike substance the sun is composed of) and magnetic fields near the sun; and 3) to learn more about how high-energy particles travel outward from the sun.

It uses a set of instruments known as FIELDS, which has antennas to measure electric fields and magnetometers to measure magnetic fields. The probe is also equipped with a pair of cameras to capture images of the sun. The probe carries various instruments for studying particles in the solar wind—that is, the continuous flow of particles from the sun.

The sun’s corona can be as hot as 4,000,000 °F (2,200,000 °C). Because of the corona’s low density (concentration of matter), the Parker Solar Probe will not experience the sun’s most intense heat. However, it will encounter temperatures of up to 2,500 °F (1,377 °C)—hotter than lava from a volcano.

The Parker probe is planned to approach the sun 24 times by the mission’s end. Hopefully, the Parker probe can stand the heat and gather more information about the corona and solar winds.

An image of Venus, made with data recorded by Japan’s Akatsuki spacecraft in 2016, shows swirling clouds in the planet’s atmosphere.
Credit: PLANET-C Project Team/JAXA

Venus is heating up—figuratively, that is. It has always been the hottest planet in the solar system, with surface temperatures of about 870 °F (465 °C). But new findings from the mysterious planet have been pouring in. Soon, a new generation of space probes will transform Venus from a sleepy solar system backwater to a bustling hub of scientific discovery.

Venus is the second planet from the sun. It is known as Earth’s “twin” because the two planets are so similar in size. The diameter of Venus is about 7,520 miles (12,100 kilometers). This diameter is about 400 miles (640 kilometers) smaller than that of Earth. No other planet comes nearer to Earth than does Venus. At its closest approach, it is about 23.7 million miles (38.2 million kilometers) away.

But Venus is better described as Earth’s evil twin, in respect to its withering conditions. In addition to the high temperatures, the atmospheric pressure is 90 times greater than that on Earth. Carbon dioxide makes up most of the atmosphere. The skies are strewn with clouds of sulfuric acid.

Scientists sent several probes to learn more about the planet in the 1960’s and 1970’s. But as space agencies learned of its inhospitable conditions, they concentrated their efforts elsewhere, particularly Mars. The last United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) mission to study Venus, called Magellan, launched in 1990. Thus, scientists know relatively little about Venus, despite its close proximity to Earth and its similar size.

Despite the dearth of missions in recent years, planetary scientists continue to scan the planet with Earth-based instruments and reanalyze older data. They have returned surprising results.

Last year, a team of scientists announced that they had discovered a gas called phosphine in Venus’s atmosphere. Many living things on Earth produce phosphine; and scientists have not been able to identify any non-biological processes on Venus that might produce it. This raised the possibility that microbial life could exist in Venus’s atmosphere, where the conditions are much milder. But the discovery has been controversial. Other teams have failed to find any phosphine signature.

Last month, a team led by researchers at Queen’s University Belfast left the floating-Venusian-microbes idea high and dry. They found that Venus’s atmosphere does not contain enough water vapor to support life, irrespective of the presence of phosphine. The team determined that even the most extreme microbes on Earth require an environment with dozens of times more water than is available in Venus’s atmosphere.

Another recent study has shed light onto possible changing of Venus’s surface. Previously, Earth was the only rocky planet known to have a moving surface. A team lead by Paul Byrne, a professor at North Carolina State University, found evidence that parts of Venus’s surface might be slowly moving today. Earth’s crust slowly reshapes itself by a process called plate tectonics. Large pieces of the surface, called plates, subduct (sink) under one another, forming mountain ranges and other features. New crust forms along the ridges where the plates pull away from each other. In contrast, Byrne’s team found that pieces of Venus’s crust move like pack ice in polar oceans. Learning more about crust movement on Venus will help scientists understand how such processes develop on other planets, including Earth and exoplanets that might harbor life.

Last month, space agencies announced that not one, but three missions will be exploring Venus in the next 15 years. On June 2, NASA announced it is sending two mission to Venus. The missions were selected as part of part of NASA’s lower-cost Discovery Program. NASA expects to launch both missions between 2028 and 2030.

VERITAS (Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy) will orbit the planet and map its surface with greater detail than ever before. It will allow scientists to better understand the planet’s features.

DAVINCI+ (Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging) consists of a sphere that will plunge through Venus’s thick atmosphere, studying the atmosphere’s composition. The DAVINCI+ mission planners are seeking evidence of an ocean of water that might have covered Venus’s surface eons ago.

There are other players in the new Venus boom. Last year, American company Rocket Lab announced plans to launch a small probe to Venus as early as 2023. And on June 10, just over a week after NASA’s selection DAVINCI+ and VERITAS, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced that it would also be sending a probe Venus. The EnVision orbiter will search for signs of current and former tectonic activity and the presence of a past ocean. EnVision is scheduled to arrive at Venus in 2034 or 2035.

The desire to learn more about Venus is fed by more than just curiosity about our nearest neighbor. Astronomers are looking for signs of life on exoplanets. But Venus and Earth would look quite similar from light-years away. Learning more about Venus and how it evolved to become so different from Earth will help astronomers better weed out Venus-like exoplanets in their search for ones that are more like Earth.

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule sits atop a Falcon 9 rocket, in preparation for launch on May 27, 2020.
Credit: © SpaceX

A new era of human spaceflight began Saturday, May 30, as Space Exploration Technologies (commonly called SpaceX) launched its Crew Dragon capsule into space. (The launch was originally scheduled for Wednesday, May 27, when it was delayed due to bad weather.) The Dragon became the first private spacecraft ever to take astronauts into orbit. The mission, called the Demo-2 mission, transported National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley to the International Space Station (ISS).

Astronauts Bob Behnken (left) and Doug Hurley (right) prepare for the first crewed launch of SpaceX’s Dragon capsule.
Credit: © SpaceX

Millions of people watched from home as SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launched the Dragon from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station into space. In orbit, the crew tested the spacecraft’s control systems to make sure the capsule was performing as intended before its arrival at the ISS. The Dragon features various modern technologies in its engineering and construction. Unlike previous spacecraft, it has a touchscreen control interface that looks similar to those used in the popular science fiction television series Star Trek.

The International Space Station (ISS)
Credit: NASA

An important part of the mission was docking the Dragon to the ISS. The capsule reached the ISS on Sunday, May 31, about 24 hours after launch. Aboard the space station, Behnken and Hurley will perform research and other tasks with the rest of the ISS crew. They will remain on the ISS for one to four months before undocking the Dragon and re-entering Earth’s atmosphere. The capsule will land in the Atlantic Ocean, where the crew will be retrieved and returned to Cape Canaveral, completing the mission.

If the Demo-2 mission is successful, NASA will certify the Crew Dragon to regularly transport astronauts to the ISS. Since NASA’s space shuttle program ended in 2011, the administration has relied on Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft to transport astronauts to and from the ISS. The Soyuz can transport up to three astronauts at a time, and NASA pays about US $86 million per seat. The Dragon is able to transport up to seven astronauts at once, and the cost per crew member is expected to be around $55 million.

January 8, 2020

Late last year, on Dec. 18, 2019, the European Space Agency (ESA) launched the CHEOPS telescope into space, where it will study the composition of exoplanets. Exoplanets, or extrasolar planets, orbit stars other than our sun. The CHEOPS telescope was launched aboard a Russian-made Soyuz rocket from the Guiana Space Center on the northern coast of South America. CHEOPS—pronounced KAY ops—is an acronym for Characterizing Exoplanets Satellite. If the acronym sounds familiar, Cheops was also the Greek name of the ancient Egyptian king Khufu, who constructed the Great Pyramid at Giza.

A Soyuz rocket carrying the ESA’s CHEOPS telescope lifts off from the Guiana Space Center on Dec.18, 2019. Credit: ESA/S. Corvaja

CHEOPS is small for a satellite, measuring just 5 feet (1.5 meters) long. The craft turns within a polar orbit that allows it to fly between night and day. Its back, covered in solar panels, receives continuous sunshine, while the telescope and camera on the other side is always peering into dark, sunless, and limitless space.

This artist’s impression shows CHEOPS with its back to the sun and the telescope pointed into dark space. Credit: ESA/C. Carreau

The CHEOPS mission is not to discover new exoplanets, but rather to learn more about the exoplanets we already know exist. CHEOPS will study exoplanets larger than our own Earth but smaller than the planet Neptune. Scientists want to know if these intermediate sized exoplanets are more like “super-Earths”—large rocky worlds—or “mini-Neptunes”—small gas giants. By studying an exoplanet’s atmosphere, diameter, mass, and other properties, CHEOPS can determine its composition and whether or not it might be able to support life. Astronomers have discovered over 4,000 exoplanets so far, but there are likely hundreds of billions more to be found.

CHEOPS will use the transit method to study exoplanets. It will aim its camera at a star and capture periodic dips in the star’s light output. These dips occur when an exoplanet passes in front of—or transits—a star in relation to CHEOPS’s point of view.

CHEOPS is a stepping stone between the first exoplanet observatories, such as Kepler and COROT, and the powerful observatories of the near future. The United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), scheduled for launch in 2021, will be able to determine the gases present in the atmospheres of some exoplanets and even record low detail images of those gases. The European Southern Observatory’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) will also be able to image rocky exoplanets and characterize their atmospheres after it is completed in 2025. The ELT is a ground-based observatory being built in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. Kepler and COROT prepared the way for CHEOPS, and the JWST and ELT will further examine the most promising CHEOPS targets as scientists continue the hunt for extraterrestrial life.

October 11, 2019

Every year in the first week of October, the Nobel Foundation in Sweden awards Nobel Prizes to artists, economists, scientists, and peace workers who—in keeping with the vision of the Swedish chemist and industrialist Alfred Nobel—have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind. Today, World Book looks at the first three prizes, in the scientific categories of physiology or medicine, physics, and chemistry.

Nobel Prize medal (Credit: Nobel Foundation)

On Monday, October 7, 2019, the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine was given jointly to the scientists William G. Kaelin, Jr., Sir Peter J. Ratcliffe, and Gregg L. Semenza for their work showing how cells adapt to the changing availability of oxygen. Kaelin, Ratcliffe, and Semenza identified the molecular machinery that allows cells to respond to changes in oxygen levels. Their discoveries offer promising new strategies in the treatment of such diseases and maladies as anemia, cancer, heart attacks, and strokes.

William G. Kaelin, Jr., was born in New York and is a professor of medicine at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard Medical School. Peter J. Ratcliffe of the United Kingdom is the director of clinical research at the Francis Crick Institute in London and director of the Target Discovery Institute at the University of Oxford. Gregg L. Semenza, also from New York, is a professor of genetic medicine at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.

On Tuesday, October 8, the Nobel Foundation announced the prize for physics had been awarded to the Canadian-American cosmologist James Peebles and to the Swiss scientists Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz for their work on explaining the evolution of the universe and for discovering distant exoplanets (planets beyond our solar system). Among other things, Peebles theorized how matter in the young universe swirled into galaxies. In 1995, Mayor and Queloz discovered an exoplanet orbiting a star elsewhere in our home galaxy, the Milky Way, enhancing the study of planetary systems beyond our own that could support life.

James Peebles is the Albert Einstein professor of science at Princeton University in New Jersey. Michel Mayor is an astrophysicist and professor emeritus of astronomy at the University of Geneva. Didier Queloz is a professor of physics at the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University, and at the University of Geneva.

On Wednesday, October 9, the Nobel Foundation announced that John B. Goodenough of the United States, M. Stanley Whittingham of the United Kingdom, and Akira Yoshino of Japan would share the prize for chemistry for developing and refining rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. The lightweight, rechargeable, and powerful batteries are used in everything from mobile phones to laptop computers and electric vehicles. They can also store great amounts of energy from solar and wind power, further enabling the possibility of a fossil fuel-free future.

At 97 years old, John B. Goodenough is the oldest ever recipient of the Nobel Prize. He is currently the Virginia H. Cockrell Chair in Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. M. Stanley Whittingham is a distinguished professor at Binghamton University, State University of New York. Akira Yoshino is an honorary fellow at Tokyo’s Asahi Kasei Corporation and a professor at Meijo University in Nagoya, Japan.

September 13, 2019

Last week, on September 6, an up-and-coming space agency fell just short of its goal. About 1 mile (1.5 kilometers) above the moon’s surface, the India Space Research Organization (ISRO) lander Vikram deviated from its landing course and disappeared from radio contact. Vikram was to be the crowning stage of Chandrayaan-2 (Mooncraft-2), ISRO’s second lunar mission.

This artist’s depiction shows Chandrayaan-2′s lunar lander, Vikram, approaching the moon. Credit: © Raymond Cassel, Shutterstock

India was endeavoring to become the fourth country to make a soft landing (a landing that does not destroy the craft) on the surface of the moon, after the United States, the former Soviet Union, and China. Vikram would have been the first lander near the moon’s south pole, a region full of water ice and other minerals that could one day be the site of a permanent base. Vikram would have deployed a rover to explore the landing site. The Chandrayaan-2 orbiter, which had launched Vikram, located the lander on the surface of the moon a few days after its disappearance. ISRO reported that Vikram had apparently made a “hard landing,” and the lander did not respond to contact attempts.

Before the recent failure, ISRO had been riding a wave of success. In 2008, the agency deployed its first lunar satellite, Chandrayaan-1. Chandrayaan-1 mapped the moon’s surface for about a year. The satellite also released a hard lander that impacted the lunar surface. In 2013, ISRO launched the Mars Orbiter Mission, called Mangalyaan (Marscraft). The satellite overcame a minor engine failure to reach Martian orbit in September 2014.

ISRO’s failed soft landing on the moon comes on the heels of another prominent lunar failure. In April 2019, the lander Beresheet (In the Beginning), developed by the Israeli company SpaceIL, slammed into the moon when its main engine cut out unexpectedly. SpaceIL had hoped to become the first private company to place a lander on the moon’s surface. It had been one of the competitors for the Google Lunar X Prize. The contest would have awarded $20 million to the first company to achieve a soft landing on the moon. But none of the competitors attempted a landing, even after several deadline extensions, so the prize was withdrawn. The Israeli project cost about $100 million, a fraction of what a similar mission by the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) would have cost, but it took greater risks and ultimately failed.

The process of landing is the most dangerous phase of a lander’s mission. Many different systems must work perfectly for the lander to bring itself to a halt on the surface. Any malfunction is usually catastrophic. At other points in a mission, such as in transit to or in orbit around another body, engineers have plenty of time to identify and work around problems with a spacecraft. But this cannot be done in the time-sensitive environment of landing.