An object designed in Luxembourg has reached the moon. But unlike all the other man-made objects that end up on our natural satellite, this one fell there by accident. explanations.
The moon now has another crater. A dormant rocket stage for years crashed into our natural satellite on Friday, March 4. Since the event cannot be directly observed, we still have to wait for the proof in the pictures.
Breakdown at 9000KH/H
The collision occurred at 12:25 BST on the far side of the moon, according to astronomer Bill Gray, who identified the upcoming collision for the first time.
Racing at over 9000 km/h, the cylindrical body must have drilled a crater”Diameter from 10 to 20 meters“.
Its trajectory was calculated using observations made by telescopes on Earth. “We had a lot of data about this object‘ Bill Gray noted.Unless it is pulled by an evil hand, the moon has hit this morning“.
The identification of the rocket in question has been discussed, as no one is officially responsible for listing and tracking space waste in deep space.
Mr. Gray, the creator of the software used by NASA-funded observational programs, watches them so they are not confused with asteroids, and thus unnecessarily studied.
After initially believing the remains were from a SpaceX rocket, he eventually declared it to be a Chinese craft. More specifically, the stage of the Long March rocket, which launched in 2014 for a mission called Chang’e 5-T1, as part of the country’s lunar exploration program.
Beijing denied, saying the word was “It returned safely to Earth’s atmosphere and was completely burnt upBut according to Bill Gray, China confused two missions with similar names, and was actually talking about launching a missile much later.
Probe manufactured by LUXSPACE
The space debris in question will be a payload aboard the Chinese rocket. A probe attached to the upper stage of a Long March 3B rocket. His name was Manfred Memorial Moon Mission (4M).
The mission was the first privately funded lunar flight on October 28, 2014. It was designed by LuxSpacea subsidiary of OHB AG, headquartered in Luxembourg.
After contacting RTL5minutes, Edgar Milic, director of LuxSpace confirmed to us that their probe is well connected to the upper stage of a Chinese rocket launched in October 2014.The mission of the upper stage was to fly over the Moon and then return to Earth to safely burn up in the atmosphere. Our payload was an amateur radio experience in honor of OHB Group founder, Manfred Fox. “
He adds that “According to information at that time, the upper stage was already burning in the Earth’s atmosphere shortly after launch. In any case, our payload’s mission life was very short, since the onboard batteries were not rechargeable, and therefore had a nominal life of nearly 8 days.”
Whatever the case, the crater formed by this collapse can only be observed by NASA’s LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter), or Indian Chandrayaan-2 probes, both of which are in orbit around this star.
The US space agency had confirmed at the end of January that it wanted to find the hole, but warned that the process could take weeks. According to Bill Gray, the two probes can observe any lunar region once a month.
Accidental collision with the moon
It is not unusual for rocket stages in the universe to be abandoned after paying for what they were launched for. But this is the first time such an unintended collision with the Moon has been identified.
On the other hand, rocket stages have already been launched on the Moon for scientific purposes in the past, such as the Apollo flights.
The study of the crater that formed and the material that was moved could lead to the development of geoscience, the scientific study of the moon.
