Category Archives: Hawaii

Friday / 3 May 2024

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Moonbase Analog Missions and Lunar Agriculture Simulations Being Conducted on Hawai’i Island

As the Artemis era of Moon exploration gains momentum, the youngest island in the Hawaiian archipelago (composed largely of cooled lava rock similar to lunar regolith) is contributing to the effort to return Humans to Luna, as reported in the May 2024 PISCES Newsletter: Space Exploration and Analog Simulation (HI-SEAS), which runs a 111-m2 geodesic dome located at 2,500 m elevation on the north slope of Mauna Loa, is forming crews for 6-day ($1,100) and 2-week mission analogs ($2,200); UH Hilo ‘Lunar Vulcans’ team conducing experiment under $1,500 NASA MINDS grant on growth of Hawaiian ‘canoe plants’ (those brought to the island by its original Polynesian inhabitants) within basalt mediums, watered via hydroponic capillary-action irrigation

 
Credits: HI-SEAS

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 1-4 March 2024

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Astronomy from the Moon and Earth Advancing with Near and Far Term Proposals / Missions

Numerous astronomy payloads are manifested on upcoming Moon landings including L-CAM (AstronetX) on ispace Mission 3 NET 2025 and LuSEE-Night (DOE) NET 2026 on Firefly Blue Ghost Mission 2 while more ambitious proposals compiled by Business Insider include the triangular Laser Interferometer Lunar Antenna (Vanderbilt University) for gravitational wave detection; Pantheon Habitat Made from Regolith, With A Focusing Solar Reflector (University of Arizona), a US$10B, 18 optical / IR telescope array with integrated living and farming space; 100,000-antenna FarView (Lunar Resources); Next generation terrestrial observatory to be supported by $1.6B NSF funding: either 25.4-m Giant Magellan Telescope on Cerro Las Campanas, Chile or Thirty Meter Telescope on Maunakea, Hawai’i

Credits: TIO, Firefly

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 5-8 Jan 2024

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Thailand Pursuing Astronomy from the Moon, Astropark Astronomy Outreach, and International Partnerships

National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (NARIT) and Mahidol University preparing to conduct cislunar cosmic ray measurement with Sino-Thai Sensor Package for Space Weather Global Monitoring payload on China National Space Administration (CNSA) Chang’E-7 launching to MSP NET 2026; 2.4-m Thai National Telescope, 40-m Thai National Radio Telescope advancing astrophysics; Princess Sirindhorn AstroPark raising public astronomy awareness through initiatives such as Night at Museum; NARIT is an independent signatory to International Lunar Research Station through Deep Space Exploration Laboratory (DSEL), as is International Lunar Observatory Association (ILOA Hawai’i), Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO) and Adriatic Aerospace Association (A3)

Credits: NARIT; Pictured: NARIT Executive Director Saran Poshyachinda (R) and DSEL Chairman of the Management Committee Guan Feng (L)
 

Tuesday / 23 May 2023

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New NASA-funded Research Center to Characterize Lunar Environment and Volatile Elements / Compounds

Biochemistry Professor Thomas Orlando of Georgia Tech to lead interdisciplinary Center for Lunar Environment and Volatile Exploration Research (CLEVER) under NASA SSERVI award (US$1.5M/yr over 5 years, $7.5M total) to investigate space weather interactions with volatiles (H2O, OH, O2, CH4, H), invaluable substances for sustained human life support and energy needs of crewed Moon surface missions during Artemis and beyond; Additional CLEVER contributors are affiliated with Johns Hopkins University APL, UCF, University of Hawaiʻi, NASA AMES and KSC; 4 other lunar science teams to receive similar grants

Credits: GT, NASA

Tuesday / 18 April 2023

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Starship Launch Slated for This Week, a Variant is to Carry First Human Moon Missions Artemis 3 / 4 to Surface

Starship in HLS form – minus aerodynamic fins / heat shielding, plus mid-body RCS thrusters – is to land uncrewed demo prior to carrying 2 Artemis astronauts from lunar orbit (transferred from Orion, launched by SLS) to surface near MSP under Option A US$2.89B contract NET Dec 2025 and Artemis 4 NET Sept 2028 under $1.15B Option B; Lunar missions to utilize ‘tanker’ and ‘depot’ scheme in which HLS will be refueled in NRHO; Artemis 5 onward to have TBD alternative lander under NextSTEP Appendix P

Pictured: SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Starship Engineering Director Shana Diez, Starship Engineering VP Joe Petrzelka in Starship Mission Control; Credits: SpaceX, Twitter / @WalterIsaacson

Tuesday / 14 March 2023

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LEAG Holding Town Hall Periphery Event at 54th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference

Interdisciplinary Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (LEAG), tasked with advising NASA HEOMD, SMD and NAC, to host hybrid Town Hall 16 March from 12:00-13:00 CDT at Houston-area convention center / online with Microsoft Teams; Presentations include Continuous Lunar Orbital Capabilities Specific Action Team Final Report from Paul Lucey (Hawai’i Institute of Geophysics & Planetology), Lunar Exploration and Science Orbiter from Michael Amato (NASA Exploration Science Strategy Integration Office), Joining The Moon And Mars Communities To A Common Goal by Clive Neal (University of Notre Dame) with Q&A to follow

Pictured (L-R):Amy Fagan, Erica Jawin, Paul Lucey, Michael Amato, Joel Kearns, Clive Neal; Credits: NASA, LinkedIn, Twitter / @NMNH, SSERVI, LPSC, LEAG, ND

Tuesday / 4 Oct 2022

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Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) Bolstering Global Ground Station Network Ahead of Lunar Mission Demands

Ka-band (26 GHz) deep space communication facilities in Chile and Australia to be added to SSC 10-station grid including Esrange (Sweden, 68°N), Inuvik (Canada, 68°N) Siracha (Thailand, 13°N), Clewiston (Florida, 26°N) South Point ‘Pete Conrad’ Ground Station (Hawaiʻi, 19°N), WASC (Australia, 29°S) and Santiago (Chile, 33°S); SSC to provide service for CLPS providers Astrobotic and Firefly during upcoming Peregrine (NET Q4 2022) and Blue Ghost (NET 2024) landing missions; SSC partnering with CNES, Safran Data Systems of France on new antenna systems and support

Pictured: SSC CEO Stefan Gardefjord, CNES Director of Strategy Jean-Marc Astorg; Credits: SSC, Twitter

Tuesday / 25 January 2022

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Hawai’i Planetary Scientists & Engineers Work to Characterize Lunar Moisture, Develop Basalt ISRU Building Technique

In Situ Detection of Water on the Moon by the Chang’e-5 Lander, a collaborative research effort between Shuai Li of University of Hawaii Mānoa and Honglei Lin, Rui Xu of Chinese Academy of Sciences details Lunar Mineralogical Spectrometer data taken from ~1.4 m elevation at Chang’e-5 landing site (43.06°N, 51.92°W), finding <120 ppm water content in regolith; PISCES advancing basalt sintering process under NASA STTR phase 1 funding co-awarded with Masten, may build prototype extruder under phase 2 with goal of ISRU on Moon

 

Credits: ESA, UH, CAS, PISCES

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 14-17 May 2021

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NASA To Launch 21st Century Deep Space Laser Communications System

Laser Communications Relay Demonstrations (LCRD) To Launch To 35,405km Geosynchronous Orbit On Space Test Program Satellite-6 (STPSat-6) From Cape Canaveral Space Force Station 23 June, Powered By ULA Atlas V In 551 Configuration; Building On LADEE Lunar Laser Communications Demonstration Of 622 Mbps Downlink / 40 Mbps Uplink From Moon Orbit, LCRD Is Expected To Show Infrared Laser-Based Speed To / From Optical Ground Station 1 (California) & 2 (Hawaii) ‘10 To 100x’ Faster Than Existing Radio Frequency Comms

Credits: NASA

Friday / 8 Jan 2021

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PISCES Invites Researchers To Utilize Hawai’i Landscape As Lunar Sandbox, Advances ISRU Materials Science

Opportunity To Test Technologies Meant For Moon Offered By PISCES Through Hawaii Analog for Lunar Operations (H4LO) Program Located In Hawaii Ocean Science and Technology (HOST) Park Near Kailua-Kona; 326-kg Helelani Rover, Built By Ontario Drive And Gear, Is Operable In-Person Or Remotely Via Broadband Worldwide; HOST Sits On 870 Acres Recently Covered In Lava, Providing Excellent Analog To Moon / Mars Surface; Basalt Sintering Technique Progressing With Addition Of Binding Agent, Lunar And Terrestrial Applications Being Considered While Further Development Funding Sought

Credits: PISCES, ODG