Notices by AkaSci 🛰️ (akasci@fosstodon.org), page 3

The ispace RESILIENCE lander is currently in a 100 km altitude circular orbit around the moon, traveling at ~5,800 km/h, getting ready for the next set of maneuvers to start the landing sequence.

Here is a recent pic on the lunar surface taken by the spacecraft.

https://ispace-inc.com/news-en/?p=7631
7/n

Space is hard, lunar landings are even harder.

Only 4 of 13 robotic lander missions since 2019 have been successful, as shown in the table below.

Note that the ispace Hakuto-R Mission 1 lander ended with a hard landing in April 2023.

Sending best wishes to RESILIENCE for a successful landing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_missions_to_the_Moon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_missions_to_the_Moon
#Moon #MoonLanding
6/n

After landing, the ispace RESILIENCE lander will have about 14 earth days (one lunar day) to complete its mission, before night falls, bringing darkness and brutally cold temperatures.

Similar to other recent robotic landers, RESILIENCE is powered by solar cells and will not have sufficient energy storage to survive the lunar night.

#Moon #Space #MoonLanding #HAKUTO #ispace
5/n

The ispace HAKUTO-R mission 1 crash-landed for a different reason on April 25, 2023.

Around 5 km altitude, the onboard software incorrectly presumed that the radar altimeter was faulty because its reading of 5 km diverged from that of the inertial measurement unit. The spacecraft descended slowly thinking it was near the surface, ran out of fuel and then crashed into the lunar surface at more than 100 meters per second.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakuto-R_Mission_1
https://spacenews.com/software-problem-blamed-for-ispace-lunar-lander-crash/
12/n

Update from ispace about the failed HAKUTO-R M2 mission -

After decelerating from 20 km altitude to near vertical attitude, telemetry was lost.

The laser rangefinder used to measure the distance to the lunar surface experienced delays in obtaining valid measurement values. As a result, the lander was unable to decelerate sufficiently, crashing on the lunar surface at ~187 km/h.

The table in post #6 gets another red row 🙁.

https://ispace-inc.com/news-en/?p=7664
11/n

Post from Scott Tilley also shows the loss of signal from the ispace RESILIENCE lander.
🙁
10/n

Just saw this. Does not look good.
9/n

Here is the updated table of lunar landing missions in the 21st century.

Of 16 missions so far, only 6 have succeeded in landing and staying upright on the moon and completing their missions, 4 of them are from the Chinese Space Agency.

Data source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_missions_to_the_Moon#21st_century
14/n

It sounds strange that ispace had a contract to collect dirt samples from the lunar surface and "deliver" to NASA for $5,000. Of course, the samples would remain on the moon.

Other lunar landing missions have similar contracts. Colorado-based Lunar Outpost has a contract for just $1.

According to NASA, these token contracts are intended to "establish precedents for ownership and use of space resources in compliance with the Outer Space Treaty."

https://spacenews.com/nasa-selects-four-companies-for-lunar-sample-purchases/
13/n

musk calling trump ungrateful.

Didn't you know narcissists hurt easily?

Tesla stock dropped 14.26% today.
Got popcorn? 🍿
7/n

Perhaps, this post by trump made "musk go crazy?"

The love affair is over?
6/n

Oh Lord! This is getting serious. It's no longer fun and games.

Musk wrote -
"Time to drop the really big bomb:

trump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public.

Have a nice day, DJT!"
😮

5/n

Musk now threatening to "begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately."

This is quite juvenile behavior between these two, but what did you expect?
8/n

It's MAGA Wars.

Speaker Mike Johnson -
"I know that the EV mandate, very important to him, that is going away because the govt should not be subsidizing these things. It's part of the Green New Deal. And I know that has an effect on his business, and I lament that.

But for him to come out and pan the whole bill is to me just very disappointing, very surprising in light of the conversation I had with him yesterday. I just deeply regret that he's made this mistake."
👍
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R8NbUVnOtc
4/n

Sen. Kennedy: If Vietnam came to you and said - We're gonna remove all tariffs and all trade barriers. Would the US please do the same? Would you accept that deal?

Commerce Sec. Lutnick: Absolutely not. That would be the silliest thing we could do.

Kennedy: What's the purpose of reciprocity then? Why are you trying to do these trade deals?

Lutnick: Vietnam exports $125B to us and imports $12.5M. We wanna make certain products here. Blah blah ...

Nuts 🥜

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnnmOdMnPo4
#Politics
1/n

I am glad the headlines are calling trump's bill as the 'disgusting abomination.'

Elon Musk calls Trump agenda bill 'disgusting abomination' days after White House send-off - https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/elon-musk-trump-spending-tax-bill-disgusting-abomination-rcna210690
White House stands by tax bill after Musk calls it a 'disgusting abomination' - https://www.foxnews.com/politics/white-house-stands-tax-bill-after-musk-calls-disgusting-abomination
Musk blasts Trump’s agenda bill as a ‘disgusting abomination’ - https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/03/politics/video/musk-trump-bill-disgusting-abomination-leavitt-digvid
‘Disgusting abomination’: Musk goes nuclear on Trump’s ‘big beautiful bill’ - https://www.politico.com/news/2025/06/03/elon-musk-trump-bill-00382653

Elon wants to Kill the Bill. He wants the House to draft a new bill that satisfies his demands. He is becoming a deficit warrior, inciting his followers in to a frenzy against Congressional republicans.

Of course, there is no mention of the tax cuts for the rich which is driving most of the deficit. Or the bloated DoD and DHS budgets. OTOH, he has spoken many times about cutting Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, healthcare, R&D, foreign aid, ...
#Politics
3/n

Perhaps elon is realizing how much trump's bill will hurt his business and his personal wealth. E.g., the bill largely phase out the clean vehicle credit, which have helped sales of Tesla cars.

He also tweeted that "It will massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit to $2.5 trillion (!!!) and burden America citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt." which directly contradicts the lies peddled by republicans.

https://futurism.com/elon-musk-mistake-tesla-tax-credits
#Politics
2/n

The authors of the study took a fresh look at existing observations from Hubble and Gaia, incorporated uncertainties (error bars) in these measurements, and performed 1000's of Monte-Carlo simulations.

They also included the effects of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a massive satellite galaxy currently falling into the Milky Way, and M33, aka the Triangulum Galaxy, which orbits Andromeda (M31).

The net result is a range of possibilities and their probabilities.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-025-02563-1
2/n

A new study, based on data from Hubble and ESA’s Gaia space telescope, has re-examined the long-held prediction of a collision and merger between the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy in ~5 billion years.

By accounting for uncertainties in existing measurements and including the gravitational influence of other nearby galaxies (the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Triangulum Galaxy), researchers found the probability of a merger in the next 10 billion years is ~50%.
🥳
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/apocalypse-when-hubble-casts-doubt-on-certainty-of-galactic-collision/
1/n