Space and Astronomy News for the 9th of August 2025

It's a Full Moon this weekend, so while it shines brightly overhead, let's cover some Lunar related news

Have we found meteorites from the Moon here on Earth?

After the blog article from a couple of weeks ago where we mentioned that a large Martian meteorite was auctioned off for a record price (You can read about that here) a number of people asked have we found chunks of other planets that have fallen to Earth?

These are rocks that were flung into space by a large meteor impact on Mars or the Moon that have then landed on Earth. 

There's been a number of meteorites discovered on good ol' terra firma that turned out to have originated from the Moon. 

Lunar meteorite called Northwest Africa 10495 which was found in the desert of Morocco in 2015. 

Meteorites aren't common. They differ from terrestrial rocks both in their composition and chemistry and they're often quite different from other rocks in the locations where they are discovered.  There can also be long periods of time between when meteorites hit the Earth and their discovery. This means they are subject to Earth weathering, sometimes for thousands of years. 

Just about all of the meteorites discovered (almost 99%) have been traced back to asteroids which were formed early on in the history of the Solar System. A small number have been traced back to the Moon (approx. 0.7%) and Mars (approx. 0.5%). When I wrote this blog article, there's been 754 confirmed meteorites that originated from the Moon. You can see the most current list here. 

Like the Martian meteorites, it's a fair question to ask how we know these meteorites are from the Moon. There's a number of reasons. First of all, they show signs of passage through the Earth's atmosphere during re-entry. They've been exposed to shorter periods of cosmic radiation while they were in their lengthy transit from the Moon to the Earth compared to meteorites formed much earlier in the Solar System's history.  It's a complex area!

If you'd like take a deep-dive into hunks of rock from the Moon that have hit the Earth, check out this article here.

A nuclear reactor on the Moon? It mightn't be as crazy as it sounds

There was a lot of news this week about the proposal by interim NASA boss, Sean Duffy, to bring forward plans to have a working 100 kilowatt nuclear power plant on the Moon.

Acting NASA chief, Sean Duffy

NASA had previously submitted research for a 40 kilowatt nuclear reactor to be in place by 2030 called KRUSTY (Kilopower Reactor Using Stirling Technology). Read more about this here.

The announcement arrives on the back of a memorandum between Russia and China to build a nuclear reactor on the Moon by 2036.  It would be fair to say there's a new "Space Race" underway.

The larger, new reactor proposal is understood to aim for launch to the Moon before the KRUSTY 2030 timeline.  While even the headline "rush to put a nuclear reactor on the Moon" sounds a bit crazy, nuclear power is not a bad option for permanent human settlements on the Moon or Mars. 

The slow rotation of the Moon is due to it being tidally locked to the Earth. While each Lunar day is some two weeks long, the night is also two weeks in length. This makes Solar power less than ideal. (While Martian days are similar in length to Earth, the red planet's distance and frequent dust storms also make Solar power for larger projects hard to achieve. For example, NASA's large Perseverance Mars Rover or "Percy" uses a nuclear power source called a MMRTG or Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator).

Some of the technologies being proposed for nuclear power on the Moon aren't prone to suffer from the meltdown type events seen with reactors here on Earth. 

What do you think? Comment below!

Lunar Trailblazer goes dark

NASA's Lunar Trailblazer mission has officially ended. The spacecraft was launched on the 26th of February 2025, and contact was lost the next day. Lunar Trailblazer was tasked to survey the Moon's surface, looking at where deposits of water located, how much is there and observe changes over time. 

Lunar Trailblazer during testing in 2024. Image via Lockheed Martin Space

The limited data received from the spacecraft suggested that its solar panels were not correctly oriented towards the Sun, resulting in loss of power. 

“At NASA, we undertake high-risk, high-reward missions like Lunar Trailblazer to find revolutionary ways of doing new science,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “While it was not the outcome we had hoped for, mission experiences like Lunar Trailblazer help us to learn and reduce the risk for future, low-cost small satellites to do innovative science as we prepare for a sustained human presence on the Moon. Thank you to the Lunar Trailblazer team for their dedication in working on and learning from this mission through to the end.”

Read more here.

Should we not bother with the Moon? 

Here's an interesting idea. Should we skip the Moon and head deeper into the Solar System?

Humans landed on the Moon, six times from 1969 until 1972. At current rates of progress, there will be new boot prints on the Lunar surface before the end of this decade. There's also strong possibility the 60th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing by a return to the Moon won't be a mission from NASA.

Apollo 15 on the Moon in 1971. Image via NASA

The return to the Moon is seen a as a jumping off point to Mars, asteroids and even further destinations in the Solar System.  Future explorers could land on the Moon, fill up at bases with resources extracted from the Lunar surface and then scoot off to continue their journey. 

There are a few catches to this as NASA advisor Paul Sutter points out in Universe Today. First of all, while the Moon does have major mineral resources, they're not concentrated in certain areas like they are here on Earth. This is because the Moon hasn't seen the types of tectonic activities that result in large quantities in a few locations. Rather, resources are spread far more evenly across the Moon's surface. You would have to mine and sift through large amounts of material to extract resources. 

Many of these resources are of course, already available on Earth and it might be simply easier to take them into space directly. Where valuable resources are concentrated are the asteroids and possibly a more sensible long term plan would be to mine those instead.  The Moon maybe should be left alone or used as a place for research. It's no doubt the best place in the Solar System for astronomy that we can easily reach. A thought provoking read and you can find it here.

NASA Apollo astronaut Jim Lovell passes away

Apollo 13 and Apollo 8 hero also flew on Gemini VII, Gemini XII

Sad news this morning is the death at 97 of astronaut Jim Lovell.  He's probably best known as the commander of the ill fated Apollo 13 mission in 1970 that suffered a catastrophic failure to the spacecraft on the way to the Moon and managed to return the crew safely to Earth. 

Jim Lovell. Image via: NASA

He was also one of the first three humans to leave Earth and orbit the Moon in December 1968 on the Apollo 8 mission as well as two Gemini flights including one with Buzz Aldrin. 

There are now only five remaining NASA astronauts who made the journey to the Moon during the heady days of the Apollo program:

• Buzz Aldrin
• Fred Haise
• David Scott
• Charles Duke
• Harrison Schmitt

A sad day for the space and astronomy community. 

Cheers,

Earl White 

BINTEL

9th August 2025