Friday / 7 November 2025

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3 Lunar Rovers: Alike Yet Different

NASA-specified Lunar Terrain Vehicle selection NET end-of-2025 for awards from total US$4.6B available; requirements include: minimum ~1250km yearly / ~19km daily operation while hauling ~800kg, robotic construction arm with interchangeable tools, remote / autonomous / driver operation, LIDAR / camera “vision”, NASA-developed electrodynamic dust shielding, micrometeorite shielding, several years’ life through temperatures +121° to -246°C; Lunar Outpost Eagle has joystick steering for seated Astronauts, 25kph top speed, Goodyear metal-mesh tires; Astrolab FLEX has joystick for standing operators driving front- or rear-forward, Venturi wheels of heated silicone / glass / steel, horseshoe chassis, system redundancy; Intuitive Machines Moon Racer has seated-joystick operation with handrail / winch entry, Michelin tires tested to -195°C, trailer-hauling system

Image Credits: NASA – Dave Scott on Apollo 15, (CW) Lunar Outpost, Intuitive Machines, Astrolab

Tuesday / 4 November 2025

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Duffy or Isaacman? Who is Better for Urgent Moon Goals?

NASA Interim Administrator Sean Duffy announces Human Landing System contract reopened, proposes NASA become part of US Department of Transportation, discusses with NASA-contracted space industry companies desire to maintain status quo, deals with Air Traffic Controller crisis from government shutdown; entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, builder of 2 multibillion-dollar companies, financier / astronaut for 2 space flights, tweets need for private capital to fund space for pharmaceutical formulations / asteroid mining / orbital computing, sponsors “Athena plan” given to Duffy / leaked to reporters that gives equal kudos to SpaceX / Blue Origin, wants NASA to again achieve “the near-impossible” / lead the world in human space exploration / ignite the space economy / be a force multiplier for science

Image Credits: Duffy (L) – NASA / Bill Ingalls; NASA; Isaacman (R) – John Kraus

Friday / 31 October 2025

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Blue Origin First Moon Lander Launching this Year?

Blue Origin (“Blue”) stacks 3 sections of 8.3 meter Blue Moon Mark 1 Pathfinder lander and installs NASA SCALPSS payload ahead of barging from Port Canaveral factory to NASA Johnson; Blue Director Jacqueline Cortese posits launch to Moon in “a few weeks” — attempting to fly before 2026; booster to be reused for that flight expected to send off EscaPADE to Mars on 8 Nov; Mark 1 to next deliver VIPER to South Pole late 2027 under US$190M NASA contract; 15.3 meter Mark 2 lander will demo uncrewed Moon landing before taking Artemis 5 Astronauts NET 2029 per US$3.4B NASA contract

Image Credits: Blue Origin

Tuesday / 28 October 2025

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Lunar Development Cooperative Offers Transnational Framework for Sustainable Lunar Economy

Lunar Development Cooperative (LDC), New York City for-profit multinational public-private partnership proposed by Michael Castle-Miller, an attorney there, aims to enhance 1967 Outer Space Treaty by fostering egalitarian, peaceful and sustainable Moon economy; early investors can buy shares—starting at US$1—via global trading platform, be part of humanity’s lunar “holding company” with ≥51% equity held by private investors, ≤49% by sovereigns around the world; members pay fees based on market value of lunar rights to fund shared infrastructure, e.g. power stations and waste networks; robust rules ensure environmental protection, fair labor and competition, prioritize developing nations / indigenous groups for inclusive resource mining / development

Image Credits: The Lunar Development Cooperative

Friday / 24 October 2025

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ispace Innovation / Cooperation Offers Success Model for Lunar Advancement

ispace, inc. (Japan), developing Moon landers / rovers in HAKUTO-R program, planned to collect lunar regolith for US$5,000 and transfer ownership to NASA — evoking lunar property rights questions; subsidiary ispace-Europe signs 6 Oct US$22M Payload Services Agreement (PSA) with Magna Petra Corp. to deliver (via subsidiary ispace-USA APEX 1.0 lander / micro-rover) NASA MSOLO mass spectrometer for lunar Helium-3 prospecting under Magna Petra-NASA 5 May Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA); ispace signs 5 Sep MoU with Digantara (India) for cislunar awareness and 23 Oct with OrbitAID (India) for refueling, indirectly supporting ISRO-JAXA LUPEX / Chandrayaan-5 mission (JAXA rocket / rover, ISRO lander) launching NET 2028

Image Credits: ispace

Tuesday / 21 October 2025

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Moon Olympics as Overarching Concept

Olympic-class spirit would be appropriate in any discussion of a 2nd Moon race, fostering sports-like excellence in a mode of international friendship during competition; challenges of complexity arise for all, whether SpaceX with a multi-stage system, Blue Origin announcing a new robotic cargo Moon lander prior to its Mark 1, SLS and Orion moving toward launch, or China now test-firing its human-rated long March 10 twice; since People’s Republic of China 2013 Chang’E-3 landing, China has shared Moon rocks / research internationally

Image Credits: John Pisani/Spaceflight Now, CCTV, NASA, CNSA

Friday / 17 October 2025

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Head of KASA Outlines Korea Moon Goal Plan and 2026 Budget

Republic of Korea aims for robotic Moon landing by 2032; Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA) head Yoon Young-bin names 7 strategies and ~US$800M for these in 2026: continue to launch indigenous Nuri rocket, develop satellites, secure space communication, cultivate talent to build advanced craft, foster industry startups, expand international cooperativeness especially with USA, build / use new Moon simulation site; Korea is 7th nation to have lunar orbiter (Danuri, 2022 – see high-definition Moon-surface photo above), only international partner on SPHEREx space telescope, signer of Artemis Accords

Image Credits: KASA, Korea Aerospace Research Institute, SpaceX, ChosunBiz News

Tuesday / 14 October 2025

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Intuitive Machines Takes Next Steps on Lunar Journey

Intuitive Machines (“IM”) (Nasdaq: LUNR): secures contract from undisclosed government source for US$9.8M to develop next phase of lunar Orbital Transfer Vehicle (2,100kg payload) – manufacturing expected to begin 2026 for government / commercial customers; completes $30M KinetX acquisition (paying $15M cash plus 1.4 million shares), enhancing deep space navigation capabilities for lunar / interplanetary missions after using KinetX proprietary software on 2 Moon missions; offers US$250M convertible senior notes due 2030 – with option for additional $37.5M – for operations, R&D, acquisitions; continues its work on NASA-awarded contract for communication / navigation services between Earth and Moon / beyond

Image Credits: Intuitive Machines

Friday / 10 October 2025

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ispace Partners Internationally to Further Lunar Enterprise

ispace announces new business deals including JAXA ~US$6.5B Strategic Space Fund selects ispace to develop lunar-water-location orbiter in ~$42M project led by Institute of Science Tokyo, and ispace chooses 2 companies for lunar water projects: Takasago Thermal Engineering receives ~$19.5M of ispace shares to collaborate in finding lunar surface H2O, Kurita Water Industries invests ~$13M in ispace as they jointly develop lunar resources / infrastructure; payload service agreements in process: for Series 3 lander NET 2027 with Magna Petra for ~$22M to take NASA MSOLO, and Unmanned Exploration Laboratory (Korea) for 2 rovers; with Taiwan Space Agency for ~$8M to deliver NET 2028 magnetometer / UV telescope

Image Credits: ispace

Tuesday / 7 October 2025

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Australian Roo-ver to Moon 2030, Other Lunar Accomplishments

Australia Moon goals feature 20kg Roo-ver rover, named for kangaroo via public vote, launching by 2030 to Moon southern latitudes for Artemis program via CLPS, being built by ELO2 consortium co-led by EPE Oceania and Lunar Outpost Oceania and including ~20 orgs; Australia 1 of 6 original signers of Artemis Accords, ~10,000 work in space sector; 1st Australian to space Paul Scully-Power as civilian on Challenger; Parkes Observatory in New South Wales has 64m radio telescope dish Murriyang that relayed 2.5 hrs of Neil Armstrong 1st Moonwalk amid 110km/h winds, outside its safety limits

Image Credits: ELO2, Parkes