For several decades, humanity had no increased interest in going to the moon. These times are over, recently there was heavy traffic again on and around the earth’s satellite. Japan wants to become the fifth country to land a probe there this Friday.
These attempts carry a considerable risk; time and again, space players are having their teeth cut on the moon. Only at the beginning of last week did the US company Astrobotic fail to put the “Peregrine” lander on the moon. It would have been the first private landing ever. The start still worked, but afterwards there were problems with the drive system.
While in the late 1960s and early 1970s the US space agency Nasa managed one moon landing after another and the Soviet Union also succeeded in maneuvers, missions are currently going wrong again and again. But why is this the case when technology and computers are worlds more modern these days?
When experience is lost
Ulrich Walter, professor of space technology at the Technical University of Munich and former astronaut, sees parallels between today’s lunar space travel and astronomy in the early Middle Ages. At that time, star science had to be started from scratch because the sophisticated knowledge of the ancient Greeks had simply not been passed down.
The experiences of the successful moon landings of the 1960s and 1970s have also been partially lost. The researchers and engineers involved at the time are now very old or dead and can no longer contribute their knowledge. “We’re basically starting from scratch these days.”
Walter also sees one reason for the many failed attempts in the fact that the lunar modules today are equipped with a lot more software than before. This does have advantages, for example flight maneuvers can be adjusted spontaneously. On the other hand, software is also prone to errors. “I estimate that around half of the failed moon landings in recent years were due to faulty software,” says Walter. As examples, he cites the failed attempt by the Japanese company “ispace” in April and the Russian probe “Luna-25” that crashed into the moon in August.
The moon – a difficult target
Martin Tajmar, an expert in space technology at the TU Dresden, is hardly surprised by the many failed attempts in recent years. “Of course a lot is going wrong at the moment. But that was to be expected.” Landing on the moon is much more complex than launching a satellite into orbit.
Tajmar knows what makes a moon landing so difficult: no GPS signals to navigate the aircraft, a low gravitational pull, no braking atmosphere, delayed radio signals from Earth, an uneven surface and possible damage to the lander from blown-up moon dust.
“You have to test a lot,” says Tajmar. But it is difficult, for example, to simulate weightlessness on Earth. Sometimes it’s easier to try things out in real life, fail, and use the data you get to improve the process.
Five successful moon landing nations soon?
China and India in particular have benefited from the fact that they have been continuously developing their space travel for several decades, says former astronaut Walter. The People’s Republic made its first successful landing in 37 years in 2013, followed by two more. Last August, India became the fourth country in the world to land on the moon after a failed attempt.
On Friday, Japan wants to become the fifth country. The SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) lander developed by the Japanese space agency Jaxa will then test a technology for precise landings and touch down on the moon less than 100 meters from the intended landing site.
Japan hopes that a successful SLIM precision landing will usher in the transition from an era of “landing where we can” to an era of “landing where we want.” The data collected on the moon will be used as part of the US-led Artemis program.
With this program, NASA wants to bring people to the moon again after more than 50 years, but the lunar landing mission “Artemis 3” was postponed to September 2026 just last week.
Why the moon is attractive again
Walter sees a competitive situation emerging between several countries. China in particular is putting pressure on NASA. “The Americans cannot afford the shame of putting people on the moon after China.”
Space expert Tajmar says: “The Chinese have a very stringent timetable.” According to government plans, Chinese people should be on the moon by 2030 – given major delays in the “Artemis” program, it is not inconceivable that they will be walking around there sooner than the first new US moonwalkers. However, the Americans have the very successful space company SpaceX as a kind of ace up their sleeve, says Tajmar. “I would guess that Americans will be the first to put people on the moon.”
But why is the moon such a popular destination? “At the moment it’s a kind of sandbox game like ‘Who has the biggest shovel?'” says Tajmar. However, there are already economic incentives, especially for private companies. After all, large state space agencies want to buy their services. Both the failed Peregrine mission and the launch of the private lander Nova-C, scheduled for mid-February, were part of NASA’s so-called CLPS program. The goal is for private companies to offer transport flights to the moon.
Initially, activity on the moon will be driven by research, Tajmar believes. This could include, for example, an observatory on the side facing away from Earth. The moon will only make economic sense in decades. You could make money, for example, from helium-3 found on the moon for fusion power plants: “That could be a big market at some point.”
