ISpace’s private Resilience Lander will attempt to touch down on the Mare Frigoris region of the moon’s surface on June 5, at 3:17 p.m. EDT (1817 GMT).
While you won’t be able to see the lander itself from Earth, you can spot its landing zone on the lunar surface — here’s how.
Mare Frigoris —Latin for the “Sea of Cold” — formed billions of years ago when lava flooded a colossal network of impact basins left behind by brutal asteroid strikes.
These vast reservoirs of lava swiftly cooled to form dark scars on the lunar surface that we see today.
From there, look to the northwest to find the Archytas Crater scarring the southern shore of Mare Frigoris and beyond that the similarly-sized Timaeus crater.
On June 5, at 3:17 p.m., ISpace’s private Resilience Lander will try to land on the Mare Frigoris area of the moon’s surface. m. GMT: 1817 EDT. Even though you can’t see the lander from Earth, you can locate its landing zone on the moon by following these steps.
Known as the “Sea of Cold” in Latin, Mare Frigoris was created billions of years ago when lava overflowed a massive system of impact basins that had been left behind by violent asteroid impacts. The dark scars that are visible on the lunar surface today were formed by the rapid cooling of these enormous lava reservoirs.
Although it is difficult to identify with the naked eye due to its average depth of only 124 miles (200 km), the Sea of Cold covers an area of 18,000 square kilometers (6,950 square miles) near the moon’s north polar region. The spacecraft’s creator, ispace, stated that the Japanese-built Resilience lander is aiming to land near the center of Mare Frigoris, 60point 5 degrees north of the lunar equator, with a longitude of 4point 6 degrees west.
How to locate the possible landing page for the Resilience.
Although Resilience is much too small to be seen from Earth, if you know where to look, you can easily locate its approximate landing site on the lunar surface. Look toward the southeast sky on the evenings before June 5; the moon will be easier to see after sunset.
A telescope with an aperture of 6 inches or more will help resolve smaller details and allow you to focus on Resilience’s landing site, but a pair of 10×50 binoculars will help you spot the slim form of Mare Frigoris darkening the northern part of the moon’s surface.
On the southeast coast of Mare Frigoris, above Mare Serenitatis, is the Aristotles Crater, a good place to look for the Resilience Lander’s permanent home. Looking northwest from there, you can see the Archytas Crater encircling Mare Frigoris’ southern shore, followed by the Timaeus Crater, which is also of comparable size.
The Resilience Lander will land in the region beneath Timaeus, to the left of Archytas, and quite near the terminator—the line that separates the lunar surface’s dayside and nightside.
How and when to observe the Resilience lander’s lunar landing attempt.
The Resilience Lander is scheduled to land at 3:17 p.m. on Thursday, June 5. M. Although the precise timing may vary depending on operational circumstances, it is EDT (1817 GMT). ispace will be providing a live stream of the event here on Space . com. beginning at 2:10 p.m. M. EDT at 1810 GMT/3:10 a.m. on June 5. M. Versions in English and Japanese are available (JST on June 6).
