BREAKING NEWS: BACK TO LUNA!After years of preparation and two excellent test missions, the Titano 3 has safely brought the Istalian-Rildanorian crew to the lunar surfaceThe Fenice Lander Module leaving the Titano Capsule to begin its descent to the lunar surface19 Ottobre 4827After a six-day waiting which kept millions of people attached to their television and smartphones screens for the whole week, this morning at 4.47 am (Romula time) the Fenice lander module gently landed on the lunar surface, to be precise in the Andali crater: Istalia has therefore returned to Luna. But not only astronauts and Istalian technology were the protagonists of this "reconquest" of the lunar surface but also Rildanor ones who made a great contribution through their space agency with which AISA had collaborated for decades to achieve this result.
The protagonists of this new great enterprise were 4 Istalian and 2 Rildanorian astronauts, of which 4 exponents of the armed forces (Istalian Imperial Air Force and Rildanorian Royal Air Force) and 2 scientists: Colonel Maurizio Della Rosa (Commander of the Mission), Captain Pierre Rocard, Lieutenant Angela Tosi, Lieutenant Maria Cristina Lanzalonga, Lieutenant Valérie Lebranchu, Doctor Noemi Pizzi (Geologist of the AISA) and Doctor Matteo Brancacci (Biologist of the State University of Angona).
Retracing the previous stages of the Program, the current mission was preceded by the Titano 1 and Titano 2 missions, respectively an unmanned mission which reached and returned from the lunar orbit and during which most of the systems were tested and a manned mission which following a similar plan carried out a lunar flyby test and return to Terra orbit, leaving also a satellite for communications in lunar orbit, docking also with the "Unità" Space Station to test several systems and procedures like the docking, refueling, etc... before to come back on the terran surface.
The Titano 3 mission, instead, started from the Rildanorian Space Center six days ago where two close launches brought first the Gigante service module and the Fenice lunar Lander into orbit and then the Titano Capsule with the crew on board. After a 4 day trip Titano 3 entered lunar orbit and a fifth day was spent to verify all systems, refine the circumpolar orbit and to collect further data on the landing site.
Although the crew gave their green light for the lunar landing yesterday, Mission Control asked to conduct a final round of verification tests due to some anomalous data from the spacecraft which however were finally resolved.
Tonight, when in Rildanor it was already beginning to dawn, Colonel Della Rosa, Captain Rocard and Doctors Pizzi and Brancacci left with the Fenice the Titano Capsule to begin their descent towards the surface of the Andali crater in which they settled between the applause of Mission Control that rang in their intercoms.
The landing team will now stay on Luna for about 6 days during which scientific tests and exploratory excursions will be conducted and for the latter task the team will be able to use a two-post rover with which they can cover large areas of the surrounding area. Speaking of the landing site, from the beginning of the planning of the Titano Program the south pole was chosen due to the presence of large deposits of water ice already detected in the past thanks to previous probes and robotic missions while the Andali crater was the final choice from a list of six other craters in the area. The choice was guided by both practical and "patriotic" reasons: the surface of the crater was found to be rather flat and uniform, no excessive rock formations were detected, and the Titano 2 mission had identified the entrances to a couple of caves which could give access to underground lava tunnels, excellent for research and future colonization; the patriotic motivation, on the other hand, was due to the name of the crater which was dedicated centuries ago to the well-known Istalian-Dundorfian musician Giorgio Federico Andali.
At the end of this week, the 4 astronauts will return to the Titano taking off with the Fenice's ascent stage which, once the samples collected on the surface have been emptied and all the mission data transferred on the Titano, will be abandoned and made crash on the surface. During the development of the mission it was actually proposed proceed in advance with with the construction of the Polar Orbital Station, scheduled for the Phase 2 of the Titano Program, so as to be able to use the Station's integrated descent/ascent system. However, delays on the part of the contractors and some cuts in funds by the government forced AISA to return to the original program and in fact the launch of the first module of the Polar Orbital Station will only take place in 4 months.
The Titano Capsule, therefore, exiting the lunar orbit will head home which it will reach in another four days by entering orbit but docking with the "Unity" Station before proceeding with the re-entry into the atmosphere. In fact, the heavy load of samples brought from Luna will be moved to the Station from where they will be brought back to earth by the Authomated Cargo Module "Negotium", heir of the Dolgavan Module "Komēta" (dating back to the years of collaboration between AISA and Dolgava Space Agency) but, most important, the Titano will be also refueled on the Unità: in fact, the spacecraft will use most of the fuel currently on board to enter into the orbit of the Unità Space Station (orbiting around Terra with a totally different angle than the path of the Titano coming from a circumlunar orbit) and the new fuel will need to the maneuvers to reach the planned landing corridors, rather narrow since the capsule will have to land into the Odufart Sea east of the Rildanorian Coast where the crew will be retrieved by the ships of the Royal Rildanorian Navy.
With the next mission, the unmanned Titano 4A, a permanent crew module will be carried on the Titano 3 landing site waiting for the crew of the Titano 4B mission which it is expected will remain on the surface for almost 3 weeks. This time, only 4 astronauts will partecipate to the mission and all of them will descend on Luna thanks to the Fenice Mark2, carried with the mission but expected to remain attached to the Polar Orbital Station, which first stages will be already in place and to which the Titano Capsule will be docked waiting for the return of the crew from "Base Michele", baptized after Michele II who died unexpectedly few months ago.
Emperor Tommaso II expressed great satisfation for the outcome of the mission and congratulated personally with the crew and with all the women and men who partecipated to the Program. He personally thanked the Director of AISA for his proposal to name the landing site after the Emperor's father.
The Emperor wanted to say few words towards the cameras and the people gathered into the Mission Control Center:
This has been a great achievement for Istalia, for Rildanor and for the whole of humanity. This program and those which will come in the future can just only advance Man more and more in his multi-thousand-year journey to discover the secrets of the Universe and of the sciences for the benefit of Human Knowledge.
As an Istalian, I cannot fail to say that I am full of pride for such an undertaking and I am honored to be able to experience what Alessandro I and the people of Istalia felt when the Pegaso 5 mission brought the first Istalians to Luna.
I am also particularly joyful that at the side of Istalia there was Rildanor, my wife's homeland, which I can only thank for the efforts made to the project and which I cannot failt to commend for the enormous progress made in recent decades in the technological and space field.
Istalia has shown in this first part of this new century that it is still at the top of scientific, technological and industrial know-how on a global level and I cannot fail to encourage the Government and the Representatives of the Nation to continue to believe in scientific research and progress, from encouraging them to always promote new scientific and technological collaborations with other countries in the sign of cooperation, peace and progress for all humanity.
In this regard, I am satisfied of the fact that Istalia has not pulled back from joining the scientific project promoted in Selucia by the Regional Government of Oleria, namely the Gene and Seed Vault Project. Like many other countries, Istalia can also boast unique and rare species, both plants and animals, an ecological heritage that must be preserved and for this I can only congratulate the promoters of this initiative, a project as ambitious and as important as the space missions undertaken by AISA and its partners.
Thank you