Category Archives: Lunar Landers

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 23-26 June 2023

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India Aims for the Moon with Chandrayaan-3 and Artemis / Technology Partnership with USA

Chandrayaan-3 awaiting 8-day launch window opening 12 July at Satish Dhawan Space Centre / landing attempt at 4 x 2.4 km landing area at 69.367621°S, 32.348126°E; Science payloads to be utilized over 1-lunar day mission include Radio Anatomy of Moon Bound Hypersensitive ionosphere and Atmosphere (RAMBHA) to characterize near surface lunar plasma; India to enhance lunar & space capabilities via Artemis membership and steps outlined in New Technology Partnership for the Future section of document issued by White House, which calls for facilitation of technology transfer and export control reform

Pictured (L-R): U.S. State Dept Deputy Assistant Secretary for India Nancy Jackson, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, India Ambassador to the United States Taranjit Sandhu, ISRO representative Krunal Joshi; Credits: NASA, ISRO
 

Friday / 23 June 2023

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India Joins Artemis as International Lunar Research Station Builds its Coalition for Sustained Moon Activity

India and Equador are the latest signatories to USA-led Artemis Accords, bringing total national membership to 27; ISRO-NASA human spaceflight cooperation plan to be detailed by end of 2023 including ISRO vyomanaut training at JSC, ISRO ISS mission & NISAR launch NET 2024 – partnership “spans the seas to the stars” per joint statement; ILRS reportedly welcoming new partner nations Bangladesh, Iran, Mongolia, Pakistan, Peru, Thailand (of Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization) and UAE (1st nation with dual Artemis / ILRS membership) while talks ongoing with 10+ other countries

Credits: NASA, ISRO, ILRS, CNSA, Roscosmos, Twiiter / @htTweets
 

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 16-19 June 2023

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India and Russia Accelerating Quest to Pioneer Moon South Pole

ISRO Chandrayaan-3 lunar lander undergoing final integration with LVM-3 rocket at Satish Dhawan Space Centre and is slated for launch to Moon between 12 and 19 July followed by ~1 month cruise and landing at 69.37°S, 32.35°E with ≤ 2 m / sec final velocity touchdown; Roscosmos Luna-25 (47 years after Luna-24) is to follow NET 11 Aug launching from Vostochny Cosmodrome, with direct TLI route powered by Soyuz-2.1b with Fregat upper stage lasting only a few days until landing at 69.55°S, 43.54°E, just ~120km distant from Chandrayaan-3; Intuitive Machines Nova-C NET Q3, Astrobotic Griffin NET Nov 2024, NASA Artemis 3 NET Dec 2025, Chang’E-7 around 2026 also targeting MSP

Pictured: ISRO Chairman S. Somanath, Roscosmos Director Yury Borisov; Credits: ISRO, Roscosmos, Lavochkin
 

Tuesday / 13 June 2023

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NASA Scientists Contend Hospitable Conditions for Life at MSP Ought to be Consideration of Human Moon Landings

Prabal Saxena, Heather Graham, Natalie Curran, Betsy Pugel, Andrew Needham, and Noah Petro of GSFC and Aaron Regberg of JSC (L-R) show areas around Moon South Pole being analyzed for Artemis III and other future human missions are relatively conducive to certain microorganisms (B. subtilis, D. radiodurans) due to surface topography (75% protection from solar UV radiation south of 83.5°S) and temperature (maximum < 323 K) in paper presented at 25 May Artemis III Candidate Landing Regions Workshop; Study co-author Heather Graham tells Leonard David of Space.com that humans most “likely vector” for life on Moon

Credits: NASA, LinkedIn, LSSW, GSFC, JSC

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 9-12 June 2023

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National Moon Missions Around World Making Final Preparations for Launch / Lunar Surface Landing Attempts

ULA Vulcan Centaur on track to launch Astrobotic Peregrine NET July following nominal static-fire test of BE-4 methalox first stage engines, upper stage anomaly investigation ongoing, flight qualification 98% done; ISRO targeting 1-week launch window starting 12 July for Chandrayaan-3; Roscosmos set to launch Luna-25 on 11 Aug; JAXA SLIM to launch NET September, with video updates to be released as completed lander is transferred JAXA Space Exploration Center (Sagamihara Campus) to Tanegashima Space Center; Intuitive Machines making significant testing progress, on track for 2023 Nova-C launch

Credits: Intuitive Machines, JAXA

Thursday / 8 June 2023

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Planetary Scientist to Delve into Expected Artemis 3 Moon South Pole Conditions

Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI) Principal Scientist David Kring presenting What Might Artemis Astronauts Encounter at the Lunar South Pole?, an installment of LPI Cosmic Explorations Speaker Series, in hybrid online / in-person format today from Houston TX at 19:30 CDT; Low sun angle and jagged landscape may present unique challenges (visibility, traverse) and opportunities (PSRs, possibility of collecting 4.3 billion+ year old pre-Nectarian material) for 2-member Artemis 3 crew, now likely launching to MSP NET 2026 per NASA Exploration Systems Administrator Jim Free; Event will be live-streamed

Credits: LPI, NASA, KARI

Tuesday / 6 June 2023

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European Space Agency Director General Working to Achieve Human Launch Capability, Crewed Moon Landings

ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher makes clear his desire for Europe to achieve independent space capabilities with parity to China, USA, India including human launch / Moon landings in comments given to Financial Times, host of Investing in Space conference in London 5-6 June; Ariane 6 making inaugural launch NET 2024 could serve as basis for human-rated launch system, commercial crew-style model also being considered; ESA member nations to vote on funding proposals at November Space Summit in Seville, Spain – members currently have agreed to ~ EUR€16.9B / 3 year funding (US$18.1B)

Credits: ESA, Arianespace

Weekend Edition
Fri-Tues / 26-30 May 2023

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Blue Origin Team to Land Precursor Missions NET 2024 / 2025 Ahead of Uncrewed HLS Demo & Artemis 5

Under Sustaining Lunar Development $3.4B contract, ‘National Team’ composed of Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin, Draper, Boeing, Astrobotic and Honeybee Robotics to land uncrewed mission demonstrating life support and NRHO ascent capability followed by Artemis 5, in which 2 crew-members are to be ferried by Blue Moon lander from Gateway station to surface, aided by Cislunar Transporter LH2/LOX fuel depot NET 2029; Prior to contracted landings, 2 self-funded landings are take place NET 2024 / 2025 as part of technology maturation process; Blue Origin reportedly investing ≥ NASA’s $3.4B award in HLS

Credits: Blue Origin

Friday / 26 May 2023

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Artemis Lunar Scientists and Operations Experts Brainstorm While Clive Neal Advances Lunar Resource Utilization

How best to meet goals outlined in Artemis 3 Science Definition Report within operational constraints (e.g., 8 hours of aggregate EVA time, up to 2 hours in PSR) being considered in series of collaborative USRA / LPI Lunar Surface Science Workshops; Niki Werkheiser, Anne Garber, Cindy Evans, Sarah Noble among NASA team members engaging in science operation architecture development with 180+ participants in latest LSSW 19 on Integrating Science into Artemis; Next LSSW on lunar mapping to be held Aug 16-17; May AIAA Space Resources Webinar hosted by Clive Neal on Immediate Next Steps Towards Using Lunar Resources to Sustain Human Exploration & Drive the Cislunar Economy to be available on YouTube

Credits: ESA

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 19-22 May 2023

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7 National and Independent / Commercial Lunar Landers Expected to Launch Within 1 Year

ISRO and Roscosmos targeting similar launch dates (NET 2nd week in July / 13 July respectively) and landing locations in Moon South Pole region (N / NE of Boguslavsky crater ~118km apart), for Chandrayaan-3 and Luna-25 landing missions, however Soyuz 2.1b will carry Luna-25 to direct TLI over a few days, whereas CY-3 will perform a series of Oberth raising maneuvers following LVM3 launch, resulting in ~1 month trip to orbital insertion; Astrobotic Peregrine, IM Nova-C, and JAXA SLIM striving for NET Q3 launch, IM-2 early 2024, Chang’E-6 NET May 2024

Credits: JAXA Lunar and Mars Exploration Logo Contest / Twitter @jsec_jaxa_jp