Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 29 Sep – 2 Oct 2023

USA Enterprises Eager to Lead Return to Moon Surface, Make History with First Commercial Landings

Intuitive Machines, Astrobotic, Firefly, Draper, and ispace USA are working towards first United States Moon landings in over 50 years, with IM and Astrobotic aiming for launches before EOY; NASA financing IM-1 approximately US$116M and Peregrine Mission 1 $79.5; IM-1 carrying LN-1 navigation instrument, NDL Doppler lidar, SCALPSS plume cameras, and Laser Retroreflector Array produced by GSFC for NASA; Commercial customers include Columbia Sportswear, Embry–Riddle, Lunaprise, Jeff Koons, Lonestar Data Holdings; NASA / UC-Boulder and independent International Lunar Observatory Association to send Astronomy from the Moon precursors ROLSES and ILO-X

Pictured: Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus, Astrobotic CEO John Thornton; Credits: IM, Astrobotic, Linkedin

Tuesday / 19 Sep 2023

NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services Issues New Award to Firefly Aerospace for Astronomy from the Moon Follow-on

The second Firefly lunar mission launching NET 2026 to receive additional US$18M for frequency calibration of LuSEE-Night payload, with $112M already allotted for CLPS CS-3 task order for Moon far side delivery; LuSEE-Night is a collaboration between Space Science Laboratory and DOE (Brookhaven / Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories), led by PI Stuart Bale of UC Berkeley, which aims to place a 4-monopole rotating antenna array to probe cosmological ‘Dark Ages’ signals between 0.1-50 MHz; Instrument calibration to utilize Elytra Dark transfer stage / lunar orbital platform, which will deliver ESA Lunar Pathfinder relay satellite being built by SSTL

Credits: Firefly, UC Berkeley

Tuesday / 25 April 2023

Hakuto-R Mission 1 to Be First Independent Moon Landing if Successful, with CLPS Companies Not Far Behind

ispace targeting Hakuto-R M1 landing NET 25 April 16:40 UTC 12:40 EST, 06:40 HST (26 April 01:40 JST, 00:40 CST), with landing sequence initiation & live stream starting 1 hour prior; Astrobotic Peregrine delayed from 4 May NET June / July, following Centaur V test-stand explosion; Intuitive Machines working towards similar timeframe for Nova-C launch, including the pioneering ILOA Astronomy from the Moon payload ILO-X, being spoken on by Director Steve Durst at 2023 International Conference of Deep Space Sciences in Hefei, China 25 April 10:40 CST

Credits: ispace, Deep Space Exploration Laboratory, ILOA

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 17-20 March 2023

China Plans for Lunar Station Science, India Advancing Chandrayaan-3 Landing, UK Developing Nuclear Reactor

Earth Observation, stellar formation and origin of Moon are science focus areas for ILRS per Zou Yongliao of CAS; Lunar agriculture and ISRU also to be prominent in upcoming phase 4 CLEP missions Chang’E 6-8 (NET 2024, 2026, 2028); ISRO on track for late June / early July launch of Chandrayaan-3 following successful vibration / acoustic and electromagnetic testing; UK Space Agency to provide an additional US$3.53M to Rolls-Royce-led micro-reactor project supported by Sheffield, Oxford, Brighton, Bangor universities with goal of deployment on Moon circa 2029

Credits: CNSA, CAS, ISRO, Rolls-Royce

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 3-6 March 2023

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

Pictured: (T-B) ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada, ispace CTO Ryo Ujiie; Credits: ispace, Canadensys

Tuesday / 10 Jan 2022

Radio Astronomy from the Moon Initiatives Progressing via NASA NIAC, Preliminary Missions Scheduled Through 2025

CLPS Science 3 delivery to Moon farside to be 9th in program NET 2025 by TBD lander provider; CS-3 payload LuSEE-Night to observe radio frequencies <50MHz, 21-cm big bang signals via spectroscopy; Also launching NET 2025 is CLPS PRISM-12 with LuSEE-Lite precursor on Draper Series 2 lander; IM-1 mission to carry Radio-wave Observations at the Lunar Surface of the photoElectron Sheath (ROLSES) NET March; Mega structure radio observatory concept LCRT receiving support via NIAC, FARSIDE may partner with Blue Origin, Farview working with Lunar Resources; Open Lunar study with SGAC suggests ‘single international radio observatory’ be planned to preserve lunar radio-quiet

Pictured: FARSIDE PI Jack Burns, ROLSES PI Natchimuthuk Gopalswamy, LCRT PI Saptarshi Bandyopadhyay, LuSEE PI Stuart Bale; Credits: NASA, UC Boulder, UC Berkeley, Vladimir Vustyanky / JPL

Friday / 6 Jan 2022

Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter Danuri Sending Awesome Earthrise Images Home While Preparing for Science Operations

From a 100-km circular polar orbit around the Moon, Danuri has an excellent vantage of Earth rising over the lunarscape which KARI team is observing with Lunar Terrain Imager (LUTI), 1 of 6 science payloads to be used for 1-year nominal science mission commencing February; KMAG (KPLO Magnetometer), Wide-Angle Polarimetric Camera (PolCam), KPLO Gamma-Ray Spectrometer (KGRS), Disruption Tolerant Network Experiment Payload (DTNPL) also developed by KARI; ShadowCam built by ASU for NASA, based on Narrow Angle Camera components of LROC on LRO with 200x sensitivity

Credits: KARI

Friday / 5 Aug 2022

Astronomy from the Moon Presented at 31st IAU General Assembly in Busan, S. Korea

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

Credits: IAU, ILOA, NASA

Wednesday / 27 July 2022

Galaxy Forum Southeast Asia (GFSEA), Singapore Considers Lunar Commercial Communications, Pan Asia Astro Cooperation

GFSEA engaging regional astronomical / astronautical space leaders in dialogue at iconic ArtScience Museum 27 July on 3 themes: Considerations for Southeast Asia Space Agency (SEASA), Asia Astronomy Organization (AAO) modeled on European Southern Observatories, and Lunar Commercial Communications (LCC) – expanding commercial communications by 1,240x; Moderated by Singapore Space and Technology Limited President Jon Hung, LCC panel includes International Lunar Observatory Association Hawaii Director Steve Durst, Qosmosys CEO Francois Dubrulle, Transcelestial Technologies Engineer Jan Smisek; ILOA ILO-X precursor NET 22 Dec 2022, ILO-1 flagship NET 2024 missions for astronomy, observations and communications from the Moon

Credits: ILOA, NASA, CSYS, Twitter, Linkedin

Friday / 15 July 2022

Malapert Mountain Beckons Lunar Exploration, Science, Communication, Industry

As world space powers focus future landing & Moon base efforts on Moon South Pole / prospecting H2O hidden in PSRs near Shackleton Rim, critical infrastructure zone atop nearby (~130km) Malapert Massif (86°S, 0°) remains undeclared by NASA, CNSA, Roscosmos, ESA, JAXA, ISRO or SpaceX; Malapert possesses indispensable qualities for MSP buildout: A unique astrophysical vantagepoint; Constant line-of-sight to Earth (long-duration Earth observation / communication redundancy) and Shackleton (local comms and power beaming); 70%+ solar illumination; Geological significance (border area of South Pole–Aitken basin); 4 suitable 150-m landing sites have been identified by Carnegie Mellon / Astrobotic

Credits: NASA / LROC / ASU / N. Petro / ESA