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Why explore our Moon
And how we’re going back like never before.
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By Jatan Mehta | Dives into lunar exploration, space technology, Indian space, planetary science, and more.
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The engineer who played a key role in Chandrayaan 3’s triumphant touchdown on the Moon
Kalpana Kalahasti, the Associate Project Director of ISRO’s Chandrayaan 3 mission, has been featured in Nature’s 10 most notable people of the year, owing to her crucial role in ensuring India’s triumphant touchdown on the Moon. I spoke to her to highlight her team’s approach to
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A worrisome report on safety issues at SpaceX
I’d like to bring your attention to a worrying report on SpaceX’s safety issues as published yesterday by Reuters based on what looks like a comprehensive investigation. The whole article is worth a read but I’m excerpting below some notable parts that either need to be taken
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The New York Times continues to misrepresent Indian space
The New York Times recently highlighted some emerging Indian space startups with an online & print article. It was not only widely read—seeing that it’s published by one of the world’s most-consumed publications—but also widely shared by the startups mentioned in the piece and related folks
Chandrayaan
How Chandrayaan 3 made its historic touchdown on our Moon
On August 23 at 12:33 UTC, India’s Chandrayaan 3 robotic lander touched down on the Moon near its south pole at 69.37°S, 32.32°E. The triumphant touchdown made India only the fourth country to achieve the feat of a soft lunar landing, following the former
Chandrayaan
Will Chandrayaan 3 hop after landing?
Sep 4, 2023 edit: It hopped! India’s Chandrayaan 3 lander is on its way to the Moon as we speak, aiming for a graceful touchdown near the lunar south pole on August 23. In a pre-launch interview, popular Indian YouTuber Gareeb Scientist asked an interesting question to ISRO Chief
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India aims for the Moon with launch of Chandrayaan 3
The ambitious mission comes as India signs the US-led Artemis Accords to shape future global lunar activities.
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Commission an article or brief story on space exploration
Hi, I’m Jatan Mehta, a globally published independent space exploration writer, and the creator & author of Moon Monday and Indian Space Progress. If you love my work, you can have me write an article or a brief story on a space exploration theme or topic of your choice,
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Europe launches the JUICE spacecraft to explore Jupiter’s icy moons in unprecedented detail
Iconic missions to the outer Solar System such as Voyager 1 & 2, Galileo, and Cassini gave us a close look at the largest moons of giant planets. Once thought of as inactive, cold conglomerates of ice and rock, we now know these distant moons are planet-like worlds with rich
Indian Space
How ISRO continues to build its own spaceplane
An uncrewed, autonomous spaceplane prototype developed by ISRO successfully landed on a runway at Chitradurga, India on April 2. The winged vehicle, officially called the Reusable Launch Vehicle Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD), was heli-dropped from a height of 4.5 kilometers such that its descent simulates an approach from space. The
Artemis
On NASA’s announcement of the Artemis III Science Lead and more
NASA’s Artemis Town Hall briefing at the 54th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) on March 15 announced Dr. Noah Petro as the Science Lead for Artemis III. The historic mission aims to land humans back on the Moon by mid-decade. Petro is currently the project scientist for NASA’
Indian Space
What we know about India’s Chandrayaan 3 Moon landing mission
July 20, 2023 update: This post is now old, and kept online for archival purposes. Please read my new and more detailed article on Chandrayaan 3 instead. After India’s Chandrayaan 2 lander unfortunately failed to land on the Moon in 2019 during its final mission phase, the Indian Space