Landing on the moon is an incredibly difficult feat鈥�2025 has brought successes and shortfalls
Half a century after the , the moon has once again become a destination of fierce ambition and delicate engineering.
This time, it's not just superpowers racing to plant flags, but also private companies, multinational partnerships and robotic scouts aiming to unlock the moon's secrets and lay the groundwork for future human return.
So far in 2025, lunar exploration has surged forward. have launched toward or landed on the moon. Each has navigated the long journey through space and the even trickier descent to the moon's 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 specializing in , how each mission鈥攚hether successful or not鈥攁dds to scientists' collective understanding. These missions can help engineers learn to navigate the complexities of space, operate in hostile lunar environments and steadily advance .
Why is landing on the moon so hard?
Lunar exploration remains one of the most technically demanding frontiers in modern spaceflight. involves complex trade-offs between scientific interest, terrain safety and sun exposure.
The 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 or .
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 in its orbit around Earth, the and the on the spacecraft throughout its journey.
They also need to 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鈥攐r a missed opportunity entirely.
Once on the surface, the landers need to survive 鈥攆rom highs over 250 degrees Fahrenheit (121 degrees Celsius) in daylight down to lows of -208 F (-133 C) at night鈥攁s well as dust, radiation and delayed communication with Earth.
The spacecraft's 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 , 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 NASA's . 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, , launched in January and in early March.
The lander survived the harsh lunar day and transmitted data for nearly two weeks before 鈥攁 typical operational limit for most unheated lunar landers.
Blue Ghost demonstrated how commercial landers can shoulder critical parts of , which aims to later this decade.
The second CLPS launch of the year, , launched in late February. It targeted a scientifically intriguing site near the moon's south pole region.
The , touched down on March 6 . However, during the landing process, Athena tipped over. Since it landed on its side in a crater with uneven terrain, it couldn't deploy its solar panels to generate power, which .
While Athena's tipped-over landing meant it couldn't do all the scientific explorations it had planned, the is still valuable for understanding how future landers can avoid similar fates on the rugged polar terrain.
Not all lunar missions need to land. , 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 near the poles.
Shortly after launch, however, . Engineers suspect the spacecraft may have experienced a power issue, potentially leaving its batteries depleted.
NASA is , hoping that the spacecraft's solar panels may recharge in May and June.
Ongoing and future missions
as the Blue Ghost mission in January, Japanese company ispace's Hakuto-R Mission 2 (Resilience) is and has .
The lander carried out a on Feb. 15, with an . Although launched at the same time, Resilience took a longer trajectory than Blue Ghost . This maneuver also allowed the spacecraft to collect bonus science observations while looping around the moon.
The mission, if successful, will advance and prove an important comeback for ispace after its first lunar lander in 2023.
The rest of 2025 promises a busy lunar calendar. Intuitive Machines in late 2025 to test more advanced instruments and potentially deliver NASA scientific experiments to the moon.
The European Space Agency's 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, is scheduled to deliver to the moon's 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鈥攚hether triumph or setback鈥攂rings humanity closer to a permanent return to our closest celestial neighbor.
Provided by The Conversation
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