Forty years ago, Apollo astronauts placed the first of several retroreflector arrays on the lunar surface. Their continued usefulness for laser ranging might suggest that the lunar environment does not damage optical devices. However, new laser ranging data reveal that the efficiency of the three Apollo reflector arrays is now diminished by a factor of 10 at all lunar phases and by an additiona...

Introduction: Millions of Muslims across the world observe Islamic fasting during the holy month of Ramadan, as well as the other specific dates in the lunar calendar year. While fasting during this month, Muslims refrain from eating or drinking from dawn to dusk. Islamic fasting is similar to alternate day fasting (ADF) since it incorporates an average of 12 hours of fasting and 12 hours of fe...

The "Kitab al-abniya an haqa iq al-adwiya" (Book of the Foundations of Pharmacognosy) also Known as "Rozat ol-ons wa manfa 'ar on-nafs" is the most ancient medical book in Persian (Farsi), which was written by Abu Mansur Movaffaq ibn Ali Heravi during the period of Mansur ibn Noh Samani between the years 350 to 366 lunar hegira. The book deals with 584 mineral, herbal and animal-based drugs. Th...

The future of human space exploration will inevitably involve longer-term stays and possibly permanent settlement on the surfaces of other planetary bodies. It will, therefore, be advantageous or perhaps even necessary to utilise local resources for building an infrastructure for human habitation on the destination planetary body. In this context human lunar exploration is the next obvious step...

Paleomagnetic analyses of lunar samples indicate that the Moon had a dynamo-generated magnetic field with ~50 μT surface field intensities between 3.85 and 3.56 Ga followed by a period of much lower (≤ ~5 μT) intensities that persisted beyond 2.5 Ga. However, we determine herein that there is insufficient energy associated with core convection—the process commonly recognized to generate long-li...

Introduction: By December 14, 2014, the Chang’e 3 (CE-3) lander has accomplished data acquisition for 12 months on the lunar surface, marking the completion of its yearlong nominal mission. An extended mission has been carried out, with the lander and EUVC and MUVT onboard both performing well. We summarize the preliminary results obtained by each science instrument on CE-3 lander and rover as ...

Laboratory analyses of lunar samples provide a direct means to identify indigenous volatiles and have been used to argue for the presence of Earth-like water content in the lunar interior. Some volatile elements, however, have been interpreted as evidence for a bulk lunar mantle that is dry. Here we demonstrate that, for a number of lunar pyroclastic deposits, near-infrared reflectance spectra ...

More than 130 lunar meteorites have been found in Antarc-tica and other arid regions throughout the world. Even though nearly half of all lunar meteorites are paired falls and the location from which they were launched is unknown, they sample a more extensive area of lunar crust than manned sample returns, thereby providing a vital record of lunar crust materials. To use lunar meteorites to exp...