NASA radar flying aboard India’s Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft is giving scientists their first look inside the moon’s coldest, darkest craters. The Mini-SAR instrument, a lightweight, synthetic aperture radar sent back images of the floors of permanently-shadowed polar craters on the moon that aren’t visible from Earth. Scientists are using the instrument to search the insides of the craters for water ice.

Book Review: Luna 9: The Mission Report
Back in 1966, Luna 9 became the first spacecraft to soft-land on the Moon. Apogee Books has provided an English-language NASA translation of a detailed report originally released by the USSR Academy of Sciences.


