Category Archives: Lunar Orbiters

Tuesday / 17 March 2020

Posted on by

NASA Artemis Human Lunar Landing In 2024 To Bypass Gateway 

New NASA Associate Administrator For Human Exploration And Operations Mission Directorate Doug Loverro Commits To Artemis Bypassing Lunar Orbital Gateway; Human Landing Goal In 2024 Will Be Critical Path; Canada, Japan And European Space Agencies, Maxar Technologies And Northrop Grumman Contributing To Gateway; NASA Selects Space Weather Instrument Suite And ESA-Built Radiation Instrument Package As First Science Experiments On Future Gateway Space Station; Lunar Orbit Seen As Important For Long-Term Sustainable Presence On Moon Surface

Credits: NASA

Friday / 13 March 2020

Posted on by

University Teams Building SmallSat Demonstrations For Artemis 

NASA Small Spacecraft Technology Program Selects Nine University Teams For Small (<180 Kg) Satellite Demonstrations Supporting Artemis; Universities Will Receive Up To US$200K For Lunar Projects; Arizona State University Tempe Will Test Deployable Optical Receiver Aperture; University Of Colorado Boulder Will Build SmallSat Lunar Communications System In Collaboration With JPL; University Of California Irvine And University Of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Will Both Test Electrospray Thrusters; Future SmallSats Could Provide Communications And Navigation For The Moon

Credits: NASA

Friday / 28 February 2020

Posted on by

CubeSats To Orbit Moon In 2021 To Prepare For Artemis 

NASA Small Spacecraft Technology Program Funds CubeSats For Moon; Lunar Flashlight Will Fly As Secondary Payload On Artemis-1; With Principal Investigator Barbara Cohen, Flashlight Will Examine Permanently Shadowed Regions Near South Pole For Water Ice Deposits; Rocket Lab Has Contract To Launch Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations And Navigation Experiment In 2021; 25-Kg CAPSTONE, Built By Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, Will Reach Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit As Precursor To Lunar Gateway

Credits: NASA, Rocket Lab

Friday / 7 February 2020

Posted on by

SSTL Lunar Pathfinder Data Relay To Provide Communication With South Polar Region By 2022

UK Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) Building Lunar Pathfinder Data-Relay; 280-Kg Spacecraft Is Intended To Provide Affordable Communications With S-Band And UHF Links To Missions On Surface, And X-Band Link To Earth; Will Enable Lunar Polar And Farside Missions With An Alternative To Earth-Based Deep Space Networks; Planned For Launch In 2022, Lunar Pathfinder Will Operate In Elliptical Orbit For Long-Duration Line-Of-Sight Visibility Of South Polar Region And Aitken Basin; Sue Horne Of UK Space Agency Talks Of Communicating From Lunar Orbit To Surface

Credits: NASA, SSTL

Friday / 31 January 2020

Posted on by

Nanoracks And Xplore Announce Plan To ‘Commercialize Deep Space’ Starting With Lunar Orbit In 2021

Provider Of ISS Research, Cubesat Launch And Microgravity Services Since 2009, Nanoracks Of Houston To Partner With Xplore, A Seattle-Based Enterprise Founded By Lisa Rich of Hemisphere Ventures, Developer Of A Spacecraft Suitable For Conveyance To Moon; ‘Xcraft’ Is To Offer Payload Capacity Of 30 – 70 Kg Within 50U Volume, Parameters Which May Be Sufficient For Small Landers In Addition To Orbital Cubesat Instrumentation; Nanoracks Will Contribute Customer Services Including Payload Integration For Moon ‘Xpeditions’ Scheduled For Late 2021; Xplore Has Also Reached Agreements With Celestis Memorial Spaceflight And Arch Mission Foundation

Credits: NASA, Xplore, Nanoracks

Friday / 22 November 2019

Posted on by

LRO Surpasses 10 Years In Orbit With Images Of Longjiang-2 Site And Giordano Bruno Crater

NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, Originally Designed For One Year Of Operations, Exceeds 10 Years Of Mission Returning 1.1 Petabytes Of Data; Orbiter Cameras Image Impact Site Of China Longjiang-2, Part Of Chang’e-4 Mission, But Are Unable To Locate India Chandrayaan-2; LRO Returns High-Resolution Photos Of Cliffs Within Giordano Bruno Crater; With An Estimated 7 Years Of Service Life Left, LRO Is Expected To Play Part In Reconnaissance For Artemis Human Lunar Landings

Credits: NASA

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 15-18 November 2019

Posted on by

Chandryaan-3: India Reportedly Sets November 2020 Goal For Landing Near Moon South Pole

ISRO Second Effort At Soft Landing On Surface Of Moon In Late 2020; Chandrayaan-3 To Be Configured With Detachable Propulsion Module, Lander And Rover; Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter Currently Functioning And Imaging With Onboard Terrain Mapping Camera-2 And Orbiter’s High-Resolution Camera From ~100-km Elevation; Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre Head V Narayanan (R) Leads Inquiry Into Chandrayaan-2 Lander Failure; Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre Director S Somanath (L) Leads Chandrayaan-3 Planning Committee

Credits: ISRO, NASA

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 6-9 Sep 2019

Posted on by

India Attempts First Moon South Pole Landing – In Peace For All

India Chandrayaan-2 Makes Historic Attempt At Landing In South Pole Area, Likely Region Of Future Human Settlement / International Moon Base; 682-kg Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter To Operate In Lunar Polar Orbit For >1 Year; 1,470-kg Vikram Lander And 27-kg Pragyan Rover Have Not Signaled Yet; PM Modi States ‘Whatever Has Been Accomplished So Far Is No Small Feat; We Remain Hopeful & Will Continue Working Hard On Our Space Programme’; India And USA Lunar Orbiters May Try To Locate / Image Craft On Moon Surface

Pictured: Prime Minister Modi (R) And ISRO Chair Sivan (L) At Bengaluru Monitoring Centre 7 September 2019 (India Standard Time)

Credits: ISRO, Times of India

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 2-5 August 2019

Posted on by

China Advancing International Collaboration With Chang’e-6 While Longjiang-2 Fulfills Its Mission

47-kg Micro Lunar Orbiter Longjiang-2 Makes Controlled Impact On Lunar Surface After 437 Days In Orbit Around Moon, Launched 20 May 2018 With Queqiao Communications Relay Satellite As Part Of Chang’e-4 Far Side Exploration; International Support From Japan, Germany And The Netherlands On Development; Payload Included Saudi Made Optical Camera; CNSA Offers 20 Kg Payload Space To Domestic and International Partners On Planned Chang’e-6 Sample Return Mission – Deadline To Apply Is 31 Aug 2019

Credits: CNSA / CLEP, NASA Scientific Visualization Studio

Wednesday / 24 Apr 2019

Posted on by

SpaceIL Helps Validate Lunar Cycler Concept

Lunar Impact Opens Door For Future Missions; SpaceIL Vows To Attempt Soft Landing With Beresheet 2.0; International Independent Enterprises Like Astrobotic, Moon Express, PTScientists, Team Indus, Team Hakuto, As Well As SpaceX, Blue Origin, And Others All Aim For Moon; SpaceNews Writer Edward Hudgins Notes That Beresheet Validates Cycler Concept Pioneered And Advocated By Buzz Aldrin; Cycler Spacecraft Could Reach Moon In Elongated Earth Orbits For Less Fuel Cost Than Conventional Paths

Credits: NASA, Heartland Institute