Category Archives: Advanced Technology

Tuesday / 1 March 2022

Posted on by

Space Agencies Looking for Next Generation of Lunar Vehicles May Consider Tapping Electric Car Industry

2 USA commercial teams, 1 composed of Northrop Grumman, AVL, Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost, Michelin (with Moon workers Harrison Schmitt and Charles Duke serving in advisory roles) and partnership between Lockheed Martin, General Motors compete for contract to build modern Lunar Terrain Vehicle; JAXA works with Nissan and Toyota on electric and hydrogen powered concepts; Researchers at Keck Institute for Space Studies (Caltech) promote utilization of off-the-shelf components from production electric automobiles to minimize R&D cost of bespoke vehicles

Credits: NASA, Northrop Grumman

Friday / 25 February 2022

Posted on by

Phase 2 of ‘Watts on the Moon’ Opens 3-Segment, 30-Month, US$4.5M Challenge to Enable Lunar Surface Power Transmission & Energy Storage

Running on HeroX crowdsourcing platform, NASA Centennial Challenges calls for USA team proposals for energy infrastructure concepts supporting long-term Moon operations; Open 23 Feb 2022 with competition end scheduled 11 Sep 2024, 285 teams with 3.3K innovators registered so far; Phase 1 winners (21 May 2021, totaling 500K) were Astrobotic, Astrolight, KC Space Pirates, Michigan Tech University, UC Santa Barbara, Skycorp, Team FuelPod; International missions planned near Boguslawsky, Nobile, Shackleton Rim, Malapert Mountain, Haworth Crater, Simpelius N to help determine solar illumination & resources for crew landing projected 2025 / Artemis 3

Credits: NASA, HeroX

Wednesday / 23 February 2022

Posted on by

JAXA-led Consortium Contracts with Ark Edge Space to Develop Cislunar Communication / Positioning Plan

Artemis member Japan advancing lunar network concept with Tokyo-based company Ark Edge Space, recently capitalized with US$3.5M seed investment, conducting study of lunar satellite constellation linked to Earth; Managed by JAXA with industry (Kiyohara Optical, ispace, KDDI Corp, Mitsubishi) and academic (University of Tokyo) partners, effort is part of ministerial STARDUST (Strategic Programs for Accelerating Research, Development and Utilization of Space Technology) initiative; ESA Moonlight, UK / SSTL Lunar Pathfinder, NASA LunaNet, IM Lunar Telemetry and Tracking Network striving to achieve similar functionality

Pictured: Takayoshi Fukuyo (L), Shuhei Matsushita (R)
Credits: NASA, JAXA, Ark Edge Space
 

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 14-17 Jan 2022

Posted on by

SLS ‘Mega Moon Rocket’ with Integrated Orion Spacecraft Prepares for Rollout / Wet Dress Rehearsal

Simulated countdown sequencing software / hardware test is last step before highly anticipated (12th year of $23B+ program) rollout of USA flagship Space Launch System from KSC Vehicle Assembly Building to historic Launch Pad 39B, as problematic RS-25 engine controller replaced and checked; Fueled dress rehearsal set to occur NET mid-Feb followed by hot fire and inaugural Artemis 1 uncrewed lunar flyby NET March; Elements of Artemis 2-4 crafts currently being manufactured with ULA Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (Decatur AL) and Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-25 engines (New Orleans LA) being readied for KSC shipment

Credits: NASA

Tuesday / 11 January 2022

Posted on by

Russia Holding Firm on July 2022 Launch of Luna-25, Possible World’s First Soft Landing In MSP Region

In a country noted for scientific achievement, Russian Academy of Sciences President Alexander Sergeyev heralds Luna-25 as “main scientific event of 2022” for nation; The long-awaited mission features a 1,750kg Luna-Glob craft with 30kg payload capacity for 9 science experiments probing exosphere plasma/dust, regolith, and imaging local environment to be launched from Vostochny spaceport via Soyuz-2.1b with Fregat upper stage; Landing site near Boguslavsky crater at 69.55°S, 43.54°E would be southernmost lunar soft landing in history (currently held by Chang’e-4 at 45.5°S, 177.6°E)

Credits: Roscosmos, NASA, Kremlin

Friday / 7 January 2022

Posted on by

MIT Researchers Investigating Electrostatic / Ion Propulsion Concept for Moon and Asteroid Exploration

With current propulsion technologies capable of operation in atmosphere-free environments limited to chemical rockets and ground-based locomotion, MIT supported by NASA is pioneering novel technique harnessing electrical charge found on such bodies via repulsive effect of Mylar; Initial experiments published in AIAA Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets suggest with micro ion booster augmentation sufficient lift to raise a 0.9kg craft 1cm can be achieved; Levitation technique would allow traversing otherwise impassable “very rough, unexplored terrain” per study co-author Paulo Lozano (B)

Also pictured: Oliver Jia-Richards (T); Credits: MIT

Friday / 5 November 2021

Posted on by

SpaceFund Backing Cislunar Navigation System for Autonomous Craft from Rhea Space NET 2024

Jervis Autonomous Module (JAM) is planned module for self-flying space vehicles with communication / navigation capabilities beyond range of GNSS and without constraints inherent to deep space network; System to be built by Rhea Space Activity with venture capital backing of SpaceFund, led by (R-L) Rick Tumlinson and Meagan Crawford; JAM to utilize Lunar Intelligence (LUNINT) software tool, recipient of Phase 1 and 2 SBIR grants (US$50k and $697k) with development in conjunction with Purdue University and Saber Astronautics

Credits: SpaceFund, RSA

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 29 Oct – 1 Nov 2021

Posted on by

Artemis Era Robotic / Human Moon Vehicles Being Designed and Manufactured Internationally

NASA to construct its first autonomous Moon rover, VIPER, at JSC late 2022, with landing near Nobile Crater NET late 2023; VIPER weighs 450kg with 0.75 kp/h top speed at total cost of US$433.5M; <$500K Carnegie Mellon University 2kg micro-rover Iris, is launch ready; $37.6M Australia rover launching NET 2026; Custom fabricator Hookie of Germany / Russia designer Andrew Fabishevskiy will display Tardigrade concept Moon motorcycle at ADV: Overland in LA; Japan and USA industry including Toyota / General Motors in planning stages of pressurized and unpressurized crewed vehicles

Credits: Hookie, IAC, NASA, CMU, Toyota, Lockheed Martin

Tuesday / 12 October 2021

Posted on by

Administrators Bill Nelson and Pam Melroy to Share NASA Updates from Ames Research Center

Space-based technology and techniques with applicability to Earth climate and airspace management will be discussed 12 October at NASA Silicon Valley facility; Approach to coordination of wildfire fighting, Scalable Traffic Management for Emergency Response Operations (STEReO), and air traffic control Airspace Technology Demonstration-2 (ATD-2) to be presented; VP Kamala Harris, leader of agenda-setting National Space Council, may take opportunity to advance space priorities including Artemis first woman / person of color on Moon

Pictured (clockwise): NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy, Vice President Kamala Harris; Credits: ILOA, Wikipedia, NASA

Tuesday / 14 September 2021

Posted on by

Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Invests US$20M for Development of Advanced Lunar Tech

5 USA companies engaged in Artemis-related engineering bolstered by $2.5-5M SBIR/STTR Sequential Phase 2 awards for maturation of technologies to aid sustainable exploration of Moon; Troxel Aerospace (Gainesville FL) investigating technique allowing use of Off-The-Shelf avionics in radioactive environment; Motiv Space (Pasadena CA) working on electric actuators to drive rovers/landers/robots on Moon and Mars; Alameda Applied Sciences (Oakland CA) building deep space smallsat propulsion; Advanced Cooling Technologies (Lancaster PA) and Ashwin-Ushas (Marlboro NJ) developing vehicle thermal regulation for exploration of PSRs

 

Credits: NASA, Troxel, Motiv,  AASC, Ashwin-Ushas, ACT