Category Archives: Lunar Landers

Tuesday / 18 March 2025

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ispace Has On-Track Mission, Receives Increased Award from Draper

ispace Hakuto-R Mission 2 aims to accomplish mission milestone 6 of 10 when it completes deep-space orbital maneuvers 24 April, affirming survivability there, ahead of 6 Jun landing at Mare Frigoris ~60°N; ispace business mission is to construct a sustainable Earth-Moon ecosystem implementing space resources; Hakuto-R is a multinational commercial lunar exploration program, includes payload development for lunar orbiting and landing; non-profit R&D company Draper releases US$7.7M additional funding to ispace-U.S. from its US$73M NASA CLPS award, for design of APEX 1.0 lander going NET 2026 H2 to Schrödinger Basin, ~75°S on Moon far side

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Credits: ispace, Draper

Friday / 14 March 2025

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First-ever Commercial Lander View of Earth Eclipsing Sun from Surface of Moon

During upcoming lunar eclipse on Earth, Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost parked on Moon at Mare Crisium near Apollo 11 Mare Tranquillitatis exploration area is expected to capture the first images by a robotic lander of a total solar eclipse; Earth will mostly block the Sun but leave halo / ring / rim of red around perimeter; Moon surface expected to look red; maximum totality at Firefly Texas control room is 01:18 CDT 14 Mar; eclipse will last 6 hrs 3 mins, with 65 mins of totality; Blue Ghost will rely on batteries rather than solar panels

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Credits: Firefly Aerospace, Stellarium / Bob King

Tuesday / 11 March 2025

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8 of 10 Payload Objectives Met by Firefly Blue Ghost Lander on Moon

Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost lander completing 8 of 10 CLPS payload objectives since 2 March arrival at Mare Crisium, other 2 expected; LISTER drilling 3 meters to resume after solar noon >120°C air temp; LEXI to attempt imaging Earth magnetosphere; Lunar PlanetVac manipulating regolith; RAC determining regolith accumulation on surfaces; LMS using electrical resistivity to determine rock composition; SCALPSS sending images; RadPC resisting radiation; EDS removing dust; NGLR reflecting laser pulses; LuGRE receiving GPS and satellite signals; Blue Ghost cameras will attempt capture of upcoming eclipse and sunset

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Credits: Firefly Aerospace

Tuesday / 4 March 2025

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Moon Landings in Focus at Event 7 March, Astronomy from Mauna Kea in Hawai’i

7 Mar sees Maunakea Moon Viewing with Lecture conducted by International Lunar Observatory Association (ILOA) at The Onizuka Center for International Astronomy Visitor Information Station (VIS) on Mauna Kea; Moon observation focus includes expected 6 Mar landing site of Intuitive Machines IM-2 Athena ~160 km from Moon South Pole and ILOA lunar South Pole-region missions, which include upcoming ILO-1 mission; Maunakea is important in the traditions of Hawai’I, a wahi pana, a place of cultural, spiritual and archaeological significance

Credits: reddit, University of Hawai’i at Hilo

Friday / 28 February 2025

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IM-2 Athena Landing Pods Inscribed with Employees Names: Moon Property Rights Implications?

Now in transit, Athena to land ~160 km from Moon South Pole 6 Mar; 2 of 6 landing feet inscribed with 315 IM employee names; 1 foot has IM logo; 3 have “Intuitive Machines” / “Ad Lunam”: 1 with Grace Hopper / IM-2 mission patches, 1 with Texas outline / Houston star, 1 with Maryland / Glen Burnie and Arizona / Phoenix; IM-1 Odysseus lander had similar feet; There is a clear need to define lunar property rights – frequent public-private missions to Moon surface and start of permanent lunar operations is now; Outer Space Treaty of 1967 and ‘Moon Agreement’ of 1987 likely starting points

Credits: Intuitive Machines/SpaceX/collectSPACE.com

Friday / 21 February 2025

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India to the Moon: Update and Focus

ISRO charting innovative course for human Moon landing by 2040, perhaps near Shiv Shakti where Chandrayaan 3 landed; LVM3 rocket being modified into Human-Rated HR-LVM3 ‘Soorya’ with safety systems, tripled liftoff mass capability ~1.8 million kg; higher-capacity lunar lander being built with Earth Departing Stage (EDS); crewed Moon missions to require minimum 2 launches, then in-space docking / assembly; inaugural double launch NET 2025 for Gaganyaan crewed Earth orbit, then Chandrayaan-4 lunar sample return NET 2027 (updated from 2028); IAF GLEX Conference upcoming May 7-9 in New Delhi

Credits: ISRO, NASA/JPL/USGS

Friday / 14 February 2025

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Intuitive Machines: Leader in USA Return to Moon

NET 26 Feb, 4 days after 1st observation of Intuitive Machines IM-1 touchdown on 12° slope at Malapert A 80.13°S, IM-2 launches for Mons Mouton 84.6°S with TRIDENT carbide drill built by Blue Origin Honeybee Robotics to be remote controlled from Earth while MSOLO mass spectrometer from INFICON analyzes gasses released while drilling — together called NASA PRIME-1, and also a leaping robot scanning for hydrogen / temperature communicating via Nokia 4G/LTE system; IM-3 flies NET late 2025 to Reiner Gamma magnetic anomaly area ~7.5°N for NASA PRISM carrying team of 3 JPL CADRE rovers; 4th deployment of Nova-C lander IM-4 scheduled NET Oct 2027 will take yeast to Moon South Pole

Credits: NASA, Intuitive Machines

Friday / 7 February 2025

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NASA SPARX Team Plans South Pole Aitken-Basin Sample Return ~2034

NASA Science Definition Team (SDT) lead, Ryan Watkins, announces selection of the South Pole Aitken-Basin sample Return and eXploration (SPARX) team with Lauren Jozwiak as chair; SPARX team member James Keane and SDT member Denevi will overview mission and goals in March at 56th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference; report of the SPARX team is expected NET late 2026; SPARX mission expected to launch NET 2030 with regolith samples returning NET 2034; team includes 11 main Committee Members from universities, research institutions, NASA, 2 documentarians, representatives from JAXA, CSA-ASC, ESA, 4 NASA ex-officio members

Credits: NASA, USRA LPSC, (L-R) Lauren Jozwiak, James Keane selfie + drawings, Brett Denevi by NASA/Paul E. Alers, Ryan Watkins

Tuesday / 28 January 2025

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Intuitive Machines IM-2 Science and Discovery Class Lunar Delivery

IM-2 planned launch on Falcon 9 to Moon on 26 Feb prompts invitation from NASA to media for in-person attendance; lander Athena expected touchdown is 6-7 Mar at Mons Mouton, 84.6°S, with thermal-protected payloads from NASA, Lonestar Data Holdings, Columbia Sportswear, Nokia 4G/LTE cellular system, Lunar Outpost, Puli Space, Dymon Co. Ltd., German Aerospace Center; IM’s Micro-Nova Hopper “Grace” to explore shadowed craters, send data via Nokia to Athena and IM-2 system to Earth; IM-4 landing NET 2027 also headed to South Pole area, while IM-3 landing NET 2026 aims for 7.39°N

Credits: NASA, Intuitive Machines

Friday / 24 January 2025

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Moon Landers On-Track and Planned for 2025

Firefly Blue Ghost reporting nominal operations and receiving signals from 331,000+ km distance, projected lunar landing 2 Mar; ispace lander Resilience to attempt mission Milestone 5 lunar flyby ~15 Feb after reaching 1.1M km apogee, Moon touchdown earliest date 15 May; if Intuitive Machines IM-2 launches on planned date of 26 Feb, landing expected 6-7 Mar; Blue Moon Pathfinder to launch on Blue Origin New Glenn as early as summer 2025, while Astrobotic Griffin could launch in fall

Credits: SpaceX, ispace, Firefly Aerospace, Blue Origin, Astrobotic, Intuitive Machines