ispace HAKUTO-R M1 Nearing Moon / Attempt at 1st Commercial Landing, M2 and M3 to Advance ‘Cislunar Ecosystem’
Now on Moon-bound trajectory <800,000km from Earth (having reached distance of 1,376,000km in fuel efficient route), Hakuto-R lander team managing higher than expected thermal loads while working toward 6th ‘mission success milestone’, clearing way for Lunar Orbital Insertion by mid-March, landing on Moon late-April; M2 (NET 2024) Structural Thermal Model under construction in Japan, flight model build to start NET April in Germany; M3 (NET 2024) with Draper under US$73M NASA CLPS contract to carry AstronetX astronomical imager L-CAM; ispace mission control located in Tokyo with subsidiary offices in Luxembourg and Denver CO
International Lunar Observatory Association (ILOA) to speak on the resumption of astrophysical investigation from the surface of Moon during Division A (Fundamental Astronomy) talk at 14:40 KST, just hours after Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter Danuri set to launch at 8:08 KST; IM-1 carrying ILO-X to Moon NET Jan 2023 along with co-payload Radio Wave Observations at the Lunar Surface of the photoElectron Sheath (ROLSES); Future AFTM includes ILO-1 (NET 2024), LuSEE (2025), DAPPER, FARSIDE, Lunar Crater Radio Telescope
National Space Agencies NASA, CNSA, Roscosmos, ISRO, JAXA and many commercial groups are targeting South Pole of Moon for near-term surface landings both robotic and human; Standing 4,990 meters, Malapert Mountain is clear site choice for line of sight to Earth, Shackleton, southern sky; NASA CLPS providers (Intuitive Machines, Astrobotic, Masten, Firefly), SpaceX, Blue Origin, ispace and/or major space faring agencies may facilitate ILOA flagship mission to ‘Point E’ on Malapert Mountain NET 2023
Gravitational-Wave Lunar Observatory for Cosmology (GLOC) is latest concept for conducting fundamental astrophysical research on Moon; Vanderbilt and Harvard astrophysicists K. Jani and A. Loeb contend conditions on Moon surface preferable to terrestrial and space for laser interferometry, propose <5 Hz instrument to validate general relativity / Lambda cold dark matter, observe type 1a supernovae; GLOC joins Artemis era radio astronomy from the Moon projects Farside Array for Radio Science Investigations of the Dark ages & Exoplanets (University of Colorado / JPL), FarView (Lunar Resources Inc) Lunar Crater Radio Telescope (NIAC); Optical astronomy underway includes Q1 2022 ILO-X (International Lunar Observatory) and Ultimately Large Telescope (University of Texas) study