NASA is visiting the largest valley on the Moon five decades after Apollo 18 was originally supposed to land on the Grand Canyon-sized formation

• The National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) plans to visit the largest valley on the Moon by hitching a ride on Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lunar lander.
  
• The last time NASA tried to land near the region was five decades ago with Apollo 18 — a mission that was subsequently cancelled.
  
• The mission will be carrying five payloads for NASA and will be testing the Precision Landing and Hazard Avoidance (PLHA) landing system ahead of the Artemis mission.
  

The National Aeronautics and Space Agency’s (NASA) Apollo 18 mission may have been cancelled but it still has plans to visit the largest valley on the Moon, five decades later. This time, it will be hitching a ride onboard a private lunar lander developed by Intuitive Machines called Nova-C.


“This kind of lunar landing assessment hasn’t been done since the 1972 Apollo mission,” said Steve Altemus, the president and CEO of Intuitive Machines.

Vallis Schroteri, also known as Schroter’s Valley, is almost the same size as the Grand Canyon on Earth. In addition, it’s surrounded by the largest lunar maria, Ocean Procellarum — the Ocean of Storms — which covers nearly 10% of the lunar surface.

Here’s what makes the Moon’s largest valley so special
Unlike other valleys on the Moon, the Vallis Schroteri is believed to have been formed by a collapsed lava tube that flowed from the Cobra Head crater located on the Aristarchus Plateau. The area could contain material from over one billion years ago, according to the company.


Elon Musk’s space company, Space X, will also have a part to play. The Nova-C spacecraft will be launching onboard the Falcon 9 rocket from the NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Pad 39A. This is the same launchpad that sent the Apollo Saturn V into space.

“No one in Houston has looked as seriously at the landing site for a funded lunar landing in almost 50 years,” said Altemus.

Preparing to land astronauts on the moon after 50 years
Nova C will be carrying five of NASA’s instruments to the Moon along with some commercial cargo to conduct the initial survey. The results from the scientific research and technology demonstrations as a part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) programme will help the American space agency conduct an initial survey of the site.

In addition, it’s also going to help NASA prepare for Artemis — the mission to land astronauts on the lunar surface in 2024 — with Intuitive Machines testing the automated Precision Landing and Hazard Avoidance (PLHA) landing system. The launch is tentatively planned for 11 October 2021, with other launch options available.

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