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The world is racing to land on the Moon. How do space agencies and commercial companies test their landers ahead of time?
Commercial companies and national space agencies alike are racing to land on the Moon. Japan’s SLIM Moon lander, the most recent craft to land on the lunar surface, is now in sleep mode. But this does not mark the end of Moon missions for the year. Next week, Intuitive Machines in Houston, Texas, plans to send a lander to the Moon. And later this year, China and the private companies Firefly Aerospace and ispace all aim to launch robotic lunar landers.
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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-00352-w
Disclosure: Laura Crabtree, who is quoted in this story, is a co-sponsor of the author Jatan Mehta’s newsletter Moon Monday.
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