The pressure on China is coming! Athena of the United States will land on the moon, and if successful, find a rare resource on the moon within 10 days

The United States has successfully launched a new lunar lander - "Athena", which is also the second lunar lander after the launch of the American Blue Ghost in January this year, and the United States will really be "full fire" in 2025, a large-scale lunar lander on the moon.

Of course, the goal of the lunar lander is different, the first is to go to the dangerous sea of the moon, the second is to go to the south pole of the moon, and it is also much faster than the first one.

At the same time, this time the United States has a very clear goal, what are the tasks to achieve large-scale promotion? Let's take a closer look.

The United States has landed on the moon again! Successful launch of the Athena

On February 26, the U.S. "Athena" lunar lander was launched from the Kennedy Space Center on a "Falcon 9" rocket from the U.S. Space Exploration Corporation (SpaceX), successfully putting the lunar lander into orbit, which is also the second lunar lander in 2025 after the U.S. Blue Ghost lunar lander.

Of course, the Blue Ghost lunar lander has entered its final stages and has entered a near-circular lunar orbit, and according to the plan, it will land on March 2, and if it successfully lands, it will make American history on the moon, because during this mission, the United States will take the last "history-writing" photos of the Apollo program.

So, whether it is successful or not, this is critical for the United States.

Moreover, this mission NASA also brought a lot of payloads to collect data in the dangerous sea area of the moon, and the entire mission cycle is expected to be 14 days, after which the entire mission cycle will end, and the main reason behind this is that the lunar lander's "cold resistance" cannot be done and will not be able to spend the night on the moon.

Therefore, what will be the final result, put a question mark first.

And this time the launch of the "Athena" lunar lander, in terms of time, is not as long as the Blue Ghost "tossing in orbit".

Because of the instructions given, it is expected to land at the end of March, and it is clear that this can be seen that it is also relatively "advanced" and much faster.

However, it is worth mentioning that in fact, the American intuition machine will also perform a mission in 2024, that is, the "Odysseus" lander will land near the south pole of the moon.

Although the instrument was still operating, the Odysseus tilted during the landing, limiting the amount of data collected by the instrument and leading to a reduction in mission time.

Therefore, whether the "leg can be stabilized" this time and whether there will be a crisis problem also depends on whether there is adjustment.

And judging from the state of the entire lunar lander, it is another "high-legged machine", which really worries everyone that the United States is still "persistent" in this regard and adheres to this line so much.

So what is the United States going to do this time?

According to the target plan of the launch, the landing site of the "Athena" at the end of March is located near the Moon Mountain Mons Mouton, called "Morton Mountain" in Chinese, after the United States is preparing to launch a rover called "VIPER" to the Moon in November 2024 - Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, which is also locked in this area. SOMETHING HAPPENED TO VIPER'S ROVER.

It is located about 60 kilometers from the south pole of the moon, and if the landing is successfully completed, it will make Athena the most spacecraft ever to land on the southernmost point of the moon.

If it lands successfully, it will operate during the lunar day (about a few weeks), for a total of about 10 days, which is a few days shorter than the American Blue Ghost, which is expected to be on a 14-day mission and will lose power as the moon night comes.

Therefore, the mission of the two-month lander is unable to resist the arrival of night, and NASA (NASA) is also very picky, it has its own nuclear energy technology, and it is unwilling to help, and wants others to help return to the moon, which is indeed embarrassing.

So what is the United States going to do at the south pole of the moon this time? It can be said that the tasks are very large, after all, it is not a joke to carry more than 10 instruments from NASA and other private companies. It's just that the whole is in 4 directions.

• The first, to explore lunar water sources, involves a NASA instrument that drills into the lunar soil up to 1 meter deep to collect samples and then analyzes the water sediments and other chemicals that NASA hopes will see if these resources are abundant enough for astronauts in the future, in preparation for the U.S. program to return to the moon.
• The second, 4G network testing on the lunar surface, which is a function of the 4G telephone network built by Nokia in the lunar environment.
• The third is to use an ant-sized microrobot made by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States to record the temperature of the MAPP platform when it is driving and detect it.
• The fourth, using Grace's jumping robot, will make four jumps, up to 100 meters in the air, travel about 200 meters, and eventually land in deep pits in permanently shadowed areas, which scientists have found evidence that contain usable ice sediment at temperatures of no more than -170°C, but which has never been directly detected. Grace will scan the bottom of this pit, which is about 20 meters deep, for about 45 minutes, and then jump out to explore deeply.

In fact, from a comprehensive point of view, the most important task of the United States is nothing more than to find "water" is the key, and among the four directions, at least two directions mention water, which is obvious, and it is the most critical of the United States' future return to the moon program, because water is indispensable to live on it.

This also shows that lunar water is very important in the future. And what's interesting is that the south pole of the moon that we went to this time is the area where the United States returns to the moon lock, which is obvious, the United States wants to lock in resources early, because the moon has a "first come, first served" problem.

Therefore, this mission, if the United States succeeds, will bring a new shift in lunar exploration, and find the moon's rare resource - water in 10 days.

The pressure on China is coming! Because the mainland also has this plan

The mainland's plan is on the Chang'e-7 mission, although it is not in an area, but it also points to the south pole of the moon, and the most important mission of Chang'e-7 is to find water at the south pole of the moon, which will be launched around 2026, a little later than the United States.

So, is the United States trying to seize the opportunity and seize the water source? Indeed, this smell is strong, the United States has long hoped to be in front of China in all projects, including manned lunar missions, if this time the south pole of the moon arrives and succeeds, it may be something that will be used for hype, and everyone's goal is the same, it is to find water at the south pole of the moon.

Obviously, if it arrives first, the United States will definitely get the resources and say that it will come first, and other countries do not need to go, just like the site of the American Apollo program, which was the same before.

I have to say that this is putting pressure on China, but then again, there is actually no pressure, after all, the success or failure of the United States is still unknown, even if it lands at the south pole of the moon and becomes the first, so what? After all, the south pole of the moon is so big, and the area to which the United States goes may not have problems such as water.

Then, we just need to follow our own pace and push steadily, the rest is not in a hurry, the United States is in a hurry, and it has been pulled by China on a number of projects.

For example, Mars sample return, space station plan, etc., isn't the United States still catching up?

Well, this also shows that it is still unknown if the United States wants to seize the lead in all projects. Moreover, the U.S. plan to return to the moon has increased internal contradictions, and it is unknown whether it will be postponed again.

Obviously, I am still more optimistic about myself, the United States has only dug the best area this time, which may only be a little regrettable, but for the entire moon, the United States cannot find it, this is the basic situation.

#长文创作激励计划#