The appearance of a single green leaf hinted at a future in which astronauts would grow their own food in space, potentially setting up residence at outposts on the moon or other planets. Now, barely after it had sprouted, the cotton plant onboard China’s lunar rover has died. The plant relied on sunlight at the moon’s surface, but as night arrived at the lunar far side and temperatures plunged as low as -170C, its short life came to an end.

There once was a miniature garden growing on the far side of the moon. The China National Space Agency's Chang'e 4 lander is exploring the mysterious side of our lunar neighbor that faces away from Earth. It also had some unusual guests on board and -- in a first for the moon -- one of them sprouted. Xinhua announced the sprout Tuesday and posted a series of progress images covering the course of nine days and showing a seedling reaching up inside the habitat. The experiment didn't last long. The same day, China's state-run Xinhua News declared that it's already ended.

China’s miniature biosphere experiment has yielded sprouting cotton seeds, and they are the first plants to germinate on the Moon—an important first step in creating a viable, self-sustaining lunar colony. China’s Chang’e 4 lander arrived on the Moon’s far side on January 3, 2018. Among its cargo is a miniature lunar biosphere developed by scientists at Chongqing University. This experiment consists of a 7-inch-long, airtight container filled with soil, air, water, various seeds, yeast, and fruit fly eggs.

The seeds, inside a sealed container, are the first plants ever grown on the Moon's surface.

NASA astronaut David Scott, the seventh person to walk on the Moon and, funnily enough, the first to drive around on it, is one of four people still left alive that can describe such an experience. Per BBC, he said that he’s often asked about what it was like. “I describe the majesty of the lunar mountains, the layers of volcanic lava or the beauty of the sparkling crystals in the rocks,” he wrote in his book, Two Sides of the Moon. “Only an artist or poet could convey the true beauty of space.”

In a first for the world, the Chinese National Space Agency successfully landed a spacecraft on the far side of the moon Thursday, a state broadcaster reported. The probe, named Chang’e 4, launched in early December — the latest in a series of missions aimed at exploring the moon and paving the way for Chinese astronauts to eventually land on the lunar surface. The country plans to launch a sample return mission to the moon later this year.

No one has walked on the moon in almost 50 years, but NASA says the long dry spell will come to an end by 2028. And if things go according to plan, astronauts will do more than leave flags and footprints. Working with commercial partners and the space agencies of other nations, NASA is planning on building a moon-orbiting space station as well as a permanent lunar base.

There is a perfectly wonderful map on a playful Facebook cartography page. It shows all of the countries in the world, with a two-color key underneath. Red indicates “countries with moon on the flag.” There are thirteen of them. Blue indicates “countries with flag on the moon.” There is only one: the United States.

No one told them to look for the Earth. It was Christmas Eve 1968 and the first manned mission to the moon had reached its destination. As Apollo 8 slipped into lunar orbit the crew prepared to read passages of Genesis for a TV broadcast to the world. But as the command module came around on its fourth lap, there it was visible through the window – a bright blue and white bauble suspended in the black above the relentless grey of the moon.

“Earthrise,” as it would be called, went viral, or as viral as anything could in 1968, a time that saw all sorts of photographs leave their mark on the national consciousness.

China is once again on the threshold of a historic first in its fast-paced exploration of Earth’s moon. Having sent three previous missions moonward since 2007, including one that hosted the nation’s first-ever robotic lander and rover, China’s latest lunar foray began in the early hours of December 8, 2018, when a Long March-3B carrier rocket launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China’s Sichuan Province, carrying the Chang’e-4 spacecraft. Consisting of a lander and a rover, Chang’e-4 is targeting the...

We can’t begin to imagine how revolutionary photography was when it was first introduced. There are stories of people totally overcome when first handed an image of themselves. Even today, in…

A MacArthur “genius grant” winner writes a new lunar origin story. By Brian Gallagher.

The next two Chinese missions to the moon will visit places no spacecraft has been before. The rest of the world wants a piece of the lunar action. By Lisa Grossman.

Nasa says it is going back to the Moon – and this time it's going to stay there. As well as setting up base there, Nasa hopes to use the Moon as a way to launch future missions to Mars and beyond, it said. After laying out the success it has already had, the space agency says that it is "returning to the moon – to stay". After that it will "go beyond, to Mars".

Conspiracies surrounding NASA’s moon missions nearly 50 years ago are common in Russia.

If NASA's stunning landing of a car-sized robot on Mars didn't already whet your appetite for space exploration this week, mark your calendar for 2 p.m. EST on Thursday. That's when NASA plans to give an update about a program that aims to land privately developed spacecraft on the moon. "We are announcing new moon partnerships with American companies," Jim Bridenstine, NASA's administrator, tweeted on Tuesday. "The US is returning to the surface of the moon, and we're doing it sooner than you think!"

Before the United States can return astronauts to the moon, it needs to send robots there first. As part of that ultimate mission, several lunar lander companies — including Cape Canaveral-based Moon Express — were selected to compete for up to $2.6 billion worth of NASA contracts that will fast-track the nation’s return to the moon.

Russia will establish a moon colony by 2040, the federal space agency announced. Moscow revealed a daring five year plan developed by its space agency Roscosmos which could see the former Cold War powers coming face to face on the Moon.

Nine companies will vie for a share of more than $2 billion dollars to build small landers to carry experimental payloads to the lunar surface.

Geologist-Astronaut Harrison Schmitt, Apollo 17 Lunar Module pilot, is photographed next to the American Flag during extravehicular activity (EVA) of NASA's final lunar landing mission in the Apollo series. The photo was taken at the Taurus-Littrow landing site. The highest part of the flag appears to point toward our planet earth in the distant background.

NASA’s new initiative to go back to the moon at the behest of President Donald Trump is an intriguing notion, but for now, we’re still relegated to studying and exploring the lunar surface with the help of robots. But it’s not NASA’s robots we ought to be paying attention to—there aren’t any. Instead, China currently has the leg-up in lunar exploration, and it’s poised to make a splash with its Chang’e 4 spacecraft, launched last Saturday.

Dreams of a lunar colony where people walk around on the dusty surface inside of big domes will remain a dream for a while longer. We might eventually reach a point where humans could feasibly create comfortable living conditions on Earth’s Moon, but new research suggests that the material covering our nearest neighbor is actually toxic to humans.

The primordial planet believed to have smashed into baby Earth, creating a cloud of debris that eventually formed into the moon, was chemically a near-match to Earth.

ESA’s new director general lays out his vision for an international community on the dark side of the Moon.

At 10:56 p.m. EDT, American astronaut Neil Armstrong, 240,000 miles from Earth, speaks these words to more than a billion people listening at home: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Monday, July 20 is the 46th anniversary of the first moon landing, a day that space buffs everywhere still celebrate. More than a half billion people watched the televised first moonwalk where Neil Armstrong uttered the now-famous words," That is one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

Humans could return to the Moon in the next decade and live there a decade after, a new study claims. The announcement was made on the 46th anniversary of the Apollo 11 crew's first steps on the...

Humans could return to the Moon in the next decade and live there a decade after, a new study claims. The announcement was made on the 46th anniversary of the Apollo 11 crew's first steps on the lunar surface. The study, performed by NexGen Space LLC and partly funded by NASA, concludes that the space agency could land humans on the Moon in the next five to seven years, build a permanent base 10 to 12 years after that...

new to this web site, but snapzu twitter account favs. my photos often so just thought about starting on this site. hope you enjoy my photos^^

Traveling to the Moon just got a whole lot cheaper. A NASA-funded study (PDF) has found that the cost of lunar missions could be reduced by a factor of 10 using a number of techniques – and it could also have implications for getting humans to Mars. The extensive NexGen Space study by the National Space Society (NSS) and the Space Frontier Foundation (SFF) said that partnerships with private companies could return humans to the Moon for $10 billion...

December 22, 2013

Unexplained arc-shaped, reddish streaks are visible on the surface of Saturn's icy moon Tethys in new, enhanced-color images from NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

Ranger 7 approached the moon precisely on target and transmitted 4,316 images in the 15 minutes before it impacted the lunar surface on the northern rim of the Sea of Clouds. The images, which showed the lunar surface in stunning detail, were the harbinger of future human exploration of the moon.

If it is clear tonight, step outside and marvel at the full moon. Its heavy, illuminated orb will trace a path right across the sky from horizon to horizon during the twilight and nighttime hours. It will be shining in the reflected light of the Sun, as normal, and will appear yellow/white, as normal, yet we call it a blue moon because, well … here’s where the story gets interesting.