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Half a century after the Apollo astronauts left the last bootprints in lunar dust, the Moon has once again become a destination of fierce ambition and delicate engineering. This time, its not just superpowers racing to plant flags, but also private companies, multinational partnerships and robotic scouts aiming to unlock the Moons secrets and lay the groundwork for future human return. So far in 2025, lunar exploration has surged forward. Several notable missions have launched toward or landed on the Moon. Each has navigated the long journey through space and the even trickier descent to the Moons surface or into orbit with varying degrees of success. Together, these missions reflect both the promise and difficulty of returning to the Moon in this new space race defined by innovation, competition and collaboration. As an aerospace engineer specializing in guidance, navigation and control technologies, Im deeply interested in how each mission whether successful or not adds to scientists collective understanding. These missions can help engineers learn to navigate the complexities of space, operate in hostile lunar environments and steadily advance toward a sustainable human presence on the Moon. Why is landing on the Moon so hard? Lunar exploration remains one of the most technically demanding frontiers in modern spaceflight. Choosing a landing site involves complex trade-offs between scientific interest, terrain safety and Sun exposure. The lunar south pole is an especially attractive area, as it could contain water in the form of ice in shadowed craters, a critical resource for future missions. Other sites may hold clues about volcanic activity on the Moon or the solar systems early history. Each mission trajectory must be calculated with precision to make sure the craft arrives and descends at the right time and place. Engineers must account for the Moons constantly changing position in its orbit around Earth, the timing of launch windows and the gravitational forces acting on the spacecraft throughout its journey. They also need to carefully plan the spacecrafts path so that it arrives at the right angle and speed for a safe approach. Even small miscalculations early on can lead to major errors in landing location or a missed opportunity entirely. Once on the surface, the landers need to survive extreme swings in temperature from highs over 250 degrees Fahrenheit (121 degrees Celsius) in daylight down to lows of -208 F (-133 C) at night as well as dust, radiation and delayed communication with Earth. The spacecrafts power systems, heat control, landing legs and communication links must all function perfectly. Meanwhile, these landers must avoid hazardous terrain and rely on sunlight to power their instruments and recharge their batteries. These challenges help explain why many landers have crashed or experienced partial failures, even though the technology has come a long way since the Apollo era. Commercial companies face the same technical hurdles as government agencies but often with tighter budgets, smaller teams and less heritage hardware. Unlike government missions, which can draw on decades of institutional experience and infrastructure, many commercial lunar efforts are navigating these challenges for the first time. Successful landings and hard lessons for CLPS Several lunar missions launched this year belong to NASAs Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. CLPS is an initiative that contracts private companies to deliver science and technology payloads to the Moon. Its aim is to accelerate exploration while lowering costs and encouraging commercial innovation. The first Moon mission of 2025, Firefly Aerospaces Blue Ghost Mission 1, launched in January and successfully landed in early March. The lander survived the harsh lunar day and transmitted data for nearly two weeks before losing power during the freezing lunar night a typical operational limit for most unheated lunar landers. Blue Ghost demonstrated how commercial landers can shoulder critical parts of NASAs Artemis program, which aims to return astronauts to the Moon later this decade. The second CLPS launch of the year, Intuitive Machines IM-2 mission, launched in late February. It targeted a scientifically intriguing site near the Moons south pole region. The Nova-C lander, named Athena, touched down on March 6 close to the south pole. However, during the landing process, Athena tipped over. Since it landed on its side in a crater with uneven terrain, it couldnt deploy its solar panels to generate power, which ended the mission early. While Athenas tipped-over landing meant it couldnt do all the scientific explorations it had planned, the datait returned is still valuable for understanding how future landers can avoid similar fates on the rugged polar terrain. Not all lunar missions need to land. NASAs Lunar Trailblazer, a small lunar orbiter launched in February alongside IM-2, was intended to orbit the Moon and map the form, abundance and distribution of water in the form of ice, especially in shadowed craters near the poles. Shortly after launch, however, NASA lost contact with the spacecraft. Engineers suspect the spacecraft may have experienced a power issue, potentially leaving its batteries depleted. NASA is continuing recovery efforts, hoping that the spacecrafts solar panels may recharge in May and June. Ongoing and future missions Launched on the same day as the Blue Ghost mission in January, Japanese company ispaces Hakuto-R Mission 2 (Resilience) is on its way to the Moon and has successfully entered lunar orbit. The lander carried out a successful flyby of the Moon on Feb. 15, with an expected landing in early June. Although launched at the same time, Resilience took a longer trajectory than Blue Ghost to save energy. This maneuver also allowed the spacecraft to collect bonus science observations while looping around the Moon. The mission, if successful, will advance Japans commercial space sector and prove an important comeback for ispace after its first lunar lander crashed during its final descent in 2023. The rest of 2025 promises a busy lunar calendar. Intuitive Machines plans to launch IM-3 in late 2025 to test more advanced instruments and potentially deliver NASA scientific experiments to the Moon. The European Space Agencys Lunar Pathfinder will establish a dedicated lunar communications satellite, making it easier for future missions, especially those operating on the far side or poles, to stay in touch with Earth. Meanwhile, Astrobotics Griffin Mission-1 is scheduled to deliver NASAs VIPER rover to the Moons south pole, where it will directly search for ice beneath the surface. Together, these missions represent an increasingly international and commercial approach to lunar science and exploration. As the world turns its attention to the Moon, every mission whether triumph or setback brings humanity closer to a permanent return to our closest celestial neighbor. Zhenbo Wang is an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of Tennessee. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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E-Commerce
President Donald Trump signed the TAKE IT DOWN Act into law on Monday, strengthening federal protections for victims of revenge porn and AI-generated sexual images. The bill, introduced by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), makes it illegal to knowingly publish or threaten to share nonconsensual intimate imagerywhether real or generated by artificial intelligencewithout the persons consent. It also requires tech platforms to remove such images within 48 hours of being notified and to take steps to eliminate duplicate content. Previously, federal law only banned the creation or distribution of realistic, AI-generated explicit images of children, while protections for adults varied by state. As a result, laws differed in how the crime was classified and penalized, leading to inconsistent criminal prosecutions. Some victims also struggled to have images taken down from websites. This legislation, which garnered overwhelming bipartisan support, marks the first federal law aimed at protecting adult victims. Now, people who post such content and are convicted could face penalties and prison time. The Federal Trade Commission could also sue tech companies for not complying with the law, Axios reports. “We must provide victims of online abuse with the legal protections they need when intimate images are shared without their consent, especially now that deepfakes are creating horrifying new opportunities for abuse,” Klobuchar said in a statement after the bill passed in Congress. “These images can ruin lives and reputations. But now that our bipartisan legislation is becoming law, victims will be able to have this material removed from social media platforms, and law enforcement can hold perpetrators accountable.” Tech giants have expressed broad support for the bill. Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, joined Snap, Google, Microsoft, TikTok, X, Amazon, Bumble, and Match Group in backing the legislation. “Having an intimate imagereal or AI-generatedshared without consent can be devastating, and Meta developed and backs many efforts to help prevent it,” Meta spokesman Andy Stone said in a statement in March. First lady Melania Trump has also championed the TAKE IT DOWN Act, lobbying lawmakers and speaking with teenage victims. She appeared alongside Trump at the bill’s signing. “Its heartbreaking to witness young teens, especially girls, grappling with the overwhelming challenges posed by malicious online content like deepfakes,” the first lady said in March. “Every young person deserves a safe online space to express themselves free without the looming threat of exploitation or harm.”
Category:
E-Commerce
Klarna just announced its first quarter 2025 financial results, and they show that a larger chunk of customers are buying now and not paying later. This morning, the Swedish buy now, pay later (BNPL) fintech company gave consumers a look at its performance for the first three months of 2025. The news came in the form of a press release and an accompanying AI-generated video of CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski (likely as a play to emphasize Klarnas all-in approach to AI.) In the video, Siemiatkowskis look-alike shared that Klarna has started the year strong, hitting 100 active users in the first quarter and $701 million in revenue, a 15% year-over-year increase. But theres a caveat: Although Klarna has grown this year, its also doubled its net losses from $47 million in Q1 2024 to $99 million in Q1 2025. One factor driving the spike in losses appears to be the fact that more of Klarnas consumer base, which relies on the companys fast-credit loans to pay for goods in bite-size installments, is failing to pay off their purchases. The results come as, amid a global trade war and increasing economic uncertainty, U.S. consumers are turning to BNPL services to pay for everything from electronics to groceries. Buy now, don’t pay later? A University of Michigan survey, released last week, found that U.S. consumer sentiment dropped to its second-lowest reading on record this month amid fears that the Trump administrations tariffs will lead to a spike in inflation. Between tariff concerns and the current elevated cost of living, its been a difficult few months for American consumers. Now, it seems, Klarnas customers are beginning to show the strain. According to a press release detailing its Q1 results, Klarnas consumer credit losses have jumped 17%from $117 million last year to $136 million this yearas more users fail to make their payments on time. That data is on track with an April survey from LendingTree that found that 41% of BNPL users in the U.S. paid late over the last 12 months, up from 34% a year ago. Still, for BNPL providers like Klarna, its not a bad time to be in the business. A report from Grand View Research found the U.S. BNPL market is expected to see a 26.1% annual compound growth rate between 2023 and 2030. And, based on the aforementioned LendingTree data, that market prediction is already beginning to play out: Consumers are increasingly relying on BNPL services for quotidian purchases like groceries and food delivery. (As of that survey, 25% of users had purchased groceries with a BNPL loan, up 14% from 2024.) Klarna, specifically, has recently announced major deals with DoorDash, Walmart, and eBay to cash in on the growing demand for BNPL services. Experts warn that this reliance on BNPL is a worrisome sign. Last month, Matt Schulz, LendingTrees chief consumer finance analyst, told CNBC that high interest rates, inflation, and tariff uncertainty were leading consumers to look for ways to extend their budget however they can. Still, in the fintech world, Klarna is becoming a more prominent player. Investors are waiting with bated breath for the company to move ahead with an IPO, a process that Klarna moved to begin in March but ultimately put on hold in order to await a clearer tariff outlook.
Category:
E-Commerce
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