Tuesday / 5 November 2024

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NASA Names New Possible Artemis Landing Sites, Reduces Choices from 13 to 9

NASA updated landing sites for Artemis III in heavily cratered, mountainous Lunar South Pole region; #1 consideration is Astronaut safety, then science potential, launch window, surface, seismic stability, Earth communication, lighting, combined capabilities of rocket / Orion spacecraft / SpaceX Starship Human Landing System; each location available for only part of 6-day mission so flexibility critical; permanently shadowed South Pole areas can preserve water; NASA will hold conferences / workshops to gather data; Malapert Massif ~5,000 m has perpetual sunlight, descends ~8,000 m into permanently shadowed regions; Mons Mouton Plateau wide / flat, 5,000-6,000 m, has perpetual sunlight

Credits: NASA

Tuesday / 29 October 2024

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JAXA Certifies First New Astronauts in 13 Years, Will Participate in Artemis Mission

JAXA certifies 2 astronauts to take part in Artemis Moon mission; Ayu Yoneda completed medical doctor training in 2019, has been working as a surgeon, is the youngest JAXA astronaut at 29; Makoto Suwa, 46, is a businessman with a PhD in climate science from Duke, when in elementary school met Eugene Cernan; they were selected from 4,100+ applicants, have completed a year of basic training in Japan, will travel to NASA Johnson to continue training

Credits: Ayu Yoneda, Makoto Suwa, NASA, JAXA

Tuesday / 22 October 2024

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ISRO Aims to Confirm Lunar Water with Chandrayaan 4 / 5 Moon Landers

P Veeramuthuvel of ISRO reports Chandrayaan 4 to launch NET 2027-2028 for surface / sub-surface sample return, landing 85-90° S in region where permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) are hoped to harbor water ice, will need 2 launches / remote docking in orbit; Chandrayaan 5, ISRO-JAXA collaboration now called LUPEX flies NET 2028-2029, 6,000-kg lander taking rover precisely to 89.45° S / 222.85° E on ridge between Shackleton / de Gerlache craters near PSRs, similar to China Chang’E-7 / abandoned VIPER missions, surviving lunar night is core goal, likely to use same Americium-352 radioisotope heater units (RHUs) as Chandrayaan 3

Credits: Arizona State University, ISRO, JAXA, IAF

Friday / 11 October 2024

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Thomas Zurbuchen Urges NASA to Get in the Race, Lauds USA Public / Private Synergy

Zurbuchen, NASA head of science 2016-2022, oversaw 130 missions / 37 launches, founded CLPS program; published op-ed in Scientific American 1 Oct, notes 1960s space race triumph of USA over Soviets, urges similar effort now for “sustained long-term presence” on Moon because “whoever gets there first will set rules”; China has 4-for-4 success rate on landers, may interpret current “vague noninterference rules” to make “parts of the Moon … off-limits for anyone else”; Zurbuchen had “multiple meetings with Chinese leaders” during his NASA stint, knows union of American public / private “can accelerate and radically rethink space exploration”

Credits: Cory Huston/NASA, Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA

Tuesday / 8 October 2024

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Astrobotic Working Toward 2025 Lunar Landing, Advancing Pittsburgh Infrastructure

Astrobotic Griffin lunar lander to launch on SpaceX Falcon Heavy NET September 2025 for Griffin Mission One; Griffin lander, built in Pittsburgh, will communicate via NASA JPL Deep Space Network antennae in Australia, Spain, California; 7 minutes after Florida launch, Polaris was photographed over skyline by Dustin McGrew, called “extraordinary” by Astrobotic founder William ‘Red’ Whittaker; University of Pittsburgh now has ‘Pitt Space,’ promotes research, offers graduate certificate; Astrobotic received NASA award to build solar array for Moon power infrastructure ~17x human height

Credits: Astrobotic, Dustin McGrew

Friday / 4 October 2024

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S Somanath of ISRO Continues Visionary Leadership for India Moon / Space Exploration

Dr. Sreedhara Panicker Somanath, Chairman, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) since January 2022, has clear vision of India in the forefront of exploration beginning with Moon, oversaw Chandrayaan-3 Statio Shiv Shakti landing near 70° South; focuses on Space Vision-2047 missions including Gaganyaan, Chandrayaan-series, others, Bharatiya Antariksha Station development, humans to Moon by 2040; plans Chandrayaan-4 sample return mission of 2-5 kg from lunar South pole to enhance understanding of Earth-Moon System origin; posits that ISRO aims for the stars but “will not forget the farmer or fisherman while exploring the Solar System,” emphasizes space technology must improve life on Earth

Credits: (S Somanath; ISRO: L – LVM3 launch vehicle for Chandrayaan-3, R – Chandrayaan-4 model)

Tuesday / 1 October 2024

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Space Age Achieves 40 Full Years of Daily Publishing

Space Age Publishing Company celebrates 40 years today of publishing Lunar Enterprise Daily; the first issue appeared 1 Oct 1984 and was called SpaceTime Daily; it has been through a somewhat checkered career and published under several names such as Space Daily, Space Fax Daily and Global Fax Daily, faxes beginning with a 5 by 7 inch version; after migration and arrival here in Hawaii in 1990, it became Lunar Enterprise Daily in 2001 at the beginning of the 21st century, beginning of the new millennium, and continues as such, serving the lunar exploration, habitation and development community

Credits: (SPC, NASA)

Tuesday / 24 September 2024

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Moonquake Mitigation Being Examined for Upcoming 21st-Century Human Landings

Moonquakes can last hours, earthquakes seconds; Astronauts left lunar seismometers 50 years ago showing South Pole-region epicenters likely due to global shrinkage from core cooling; University of Texas researchers used JAXA funding to decipher Moon seismograph data; 7 researchers, T.R. Watters, et al, published 25 January 2024 in Planetary Science Journal that Malapert Massif / other proposed Artemis landing sites not landslide-threatened, but structures / materials / gravity need to accommodate shaking / quivering / trembling say San Francisco engineering firm / American Society of Civil Engineering under a NASA grant

Credits: (NASA/LRO/LROC/ASU/Smithsonian Institution) (L-fault; R-blue box indicates potential Artemis landing site, dot indicates landslide likelihood)

Friday / 20 September 2024

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India Lunar Goals Boosted by Additional Funding, Aiming for 2027 Chandrayaan-4, Human Moon Landing 2040

One of 5 nations with Moon soft-landing, India plans its 2nd controlled Moon landing by 2027 with Chandrayaan-4, using 2 LVM3 rockets, docking / undocking in lunar orbit, regolith sample return / analysis, budget Rs 2,104 crore / US$251.6M, triple that of Chandrayaan-3; New launch vehicle development given Rs 8,240 crore / US$985.3M to triple payload of LVM3 at 1.5 times cost; Chandrayaan-5 (previously LUPEX) plans Indian launch vehicle / lander and JAXA rover to explore Moon South Pole permanently shadowed regions; crewed Moon landing sought 2040

Credits: (L – LVM3 rocket, ISRO; C – Chandrayaan-3 lander now at Statio Shiv Shakti 69.373°S 32.319°E, ISRO; R – JAXA Lunar Polar Exploration rover, Mitsubishi)

Tuesday / 17 September 2024

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Intuitive Machines Continues Search for Moon Ice / Water

NET January 2025, Intuitive Machines (IM) plans to launch IM-2 “Athena” Nova-C lunar lander and Lunar Trailblazer orbiter aboard Falcon 9; lander headed for Shackleton connecting ridge near Moon South Pole has Micro-Nova Hopper propulsive drone to measure surface hydrogen, PRIME-1 drill ~1 meter long, commercial off-the-shelf spectrometer, Nokia LTE 4G communications system to test; orbiter will map light wavelengths on Moon surface continuing search for water begun by Chandrayaan-1; as part of Artemis, IM receives its 4th NASA CLPS award, CP-22, US$116.9 M to deliver six instruments in 2027 to the Moon South Pole; IM is on NASDAQ as LUNR

 

Credits: (L-orbiter) Lockheed Martin, (C-hopper) Intuitive Machines, (R-light map, water / hydroxyl are blue / violet) ISRO/NASA/JPL-Caltech/Brown University/USGS