Our Moon sports a few oddities. One of them is the remarkable difference between the properties of the hemispheres facing toward and away from us: on this side the crust is thinner and smoother, displaying basins filled with dark basalt while the other side is more thick, a heavily cratered highland. The abundance of some elements (KREEP: potassium, rare-earth elements and phosphorus) is also different. There have been theories to explain this dichotomy already, like differences in tidal heating or the impact that formed the South Pole-Aitken Basin. A new theory is based on an impact, but instead of a stranger from far, it assumes an event between moon siblings.

One quick look at Evadot's brilliant GLXP scoreboard will tell you that some teams are way ahead in develompent, funding and business connections than others. (Its also worth noting that Puli barks in the middle of field despite entering the competition in the last days!) New York Times asked the three leading teams, and we sample the report here.

The THEMIS (Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms) satellites of NASA were launched in 2007 to investigate the magnetosphere of our planet. The five probes orbited at different distances from the Earth, P1 and P2 being the two farthest. The program was greatly successful, providing new discoveries about the dynamics of the magnetosphere, but by 2009 the future of P1 and P2 looked more and more grim. They passed through he Earth's shadow regularly, relying on their batteries as designed. However, as their orbit gradually changed, they spent more and more time in darkness and it was uncertain how long would they last. But then a solution emerged: the two, fully functioning satellites with ample supply of fuel will be transferred to the Moon.

Original orbits of the five THEMIS satellites. The two farthest were transferred to the Moon.

One year after the first successful MoonBots mission, we return with new robots and challenges to another former landing site of missions long past. We learned a lot from our missions last year, but this year is a little bit different. We are still after Water Ice and Helium 3 this year, but they are located in harder to reach places and smaller quantities. The new surface area to explore (although smaller in scope) isn't as easily navigable. The primary target will be the GIANT crater – Canvin, and it's smaller sibling – Chanda. Entry will be treacherous, but the wealth of water ice to discover will be worth the effort.

We know you can do it and are proud to be part of this international endeavor. Good luck roboteers. MoonBots 2.0 is a go. Registration has been extended to June 26.

A woman tried to sell a Moon rock for $1,7 million in the United States. Her client, however, was an undercover NASA agent. Selling and buying Moon samples is illegal.

A woman trying to sell a purported Moon rock was exposed in the United States by an undercover agent working for NASA. Moon rocks are considered a national treasure and therefore it is illegal to sell or buy them. On the black market though, their price reaches millions of dollars. The woman hoped to get $1,7 million for the Moon rock, but on the secret meeting in a restaurant in California her client revealed he was a NASA agent. The woman was detained, and then released – according to CBS. First, it has to be verified that the Moon rock is actually of lunar origin.

This is not the first time NASA agents have stepped in to recover moon rocks. Astronauts returned about 400 kilograms of Moon rock to Earth, but even they were not allowed to keep samples. Outside of lunar meteorites and a few ounces of the moon returned by Soviet robotic probes, all other moon rocks are considered to be the property of the United States.