Category Archives: NASA

Friday / 15 November 2024

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Firefly Aerospace Aims for Moon Far Side

Firefly Aerospace, Texas, latest fundraising of US$175M, much from RPM Ventures, raises valuation to US$2B; majority owner is AE Industrial Partners; will launch via SpaceX Falcon 9 for first of 2 commercial Moon landings under NASA CLPS awards, delivering 10 instruments / experiments including LuSEE-Night, also Australian seismic SPIDER; after transport on 2,700 kg-payload-capacity Firefly Elytra Dark Transfer Vehicle in lunar orbit, lander Blue Ghost carries 150 kg to lunar surface, provides data / power / thermal resources for operations from Moon far side for 10+ days

Credits: Firefly Aerospace, Fleet Space, SpaceX, Marilyn Sargent/Berkeley Lab

Tuesday / 5 November 2024

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NASA Names New Possible Artemis Landing Sites, Reduces Choices from 13 to 9

NASA updated landing sites for Artemis III in heavily cratered, mountainous Lunar South Pole region; #1 consideration is Astronaut safety, then science potential, launch window, surface, seismic stability, Earth communication, lighting, combined capabilities of rocket / Orion spacecraft / SpaceX Starship Human Landing System; each location available for only part of 6-day mission so flexibility critical; permanently shadowed South Pole areas can preserve water; NASA will hold conferences / workshops to gather data; Malapert Massif ~5,000 m has perpetual sunlight, descends ~8,000 m into permanently shadowed regions; Mons Mouton Plateau wide / flat, 5,000-6,000 m, has perpetual sunlight

Credits: NASA

Tuesday / 29 October 2024

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JAXA Certifies First New Astronauts in 13 Years, Will Participate in Artemis Mission

JAXA certifies 2 astronauts to take part in Artemis Moon mission; Ayu Yoneda completed medical doctor training in 2019, has been working as a surgeon, is the youngest JAXA astronaut at 29; Makoto Suwa, 46, is a businessman with a PhD in climate science from Duke, when in elementary school met Eugene Cernan; they were selected from 4,100+ applicants, have completed a year of basic training in Japan, will travel to NASA Johnson to continue training

Credits: Ayu Yoneda, Makoto Suwa, NASA, JAXA

Tuesday / 24 September 2024

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Moonquake Mitigation Being Examined for Upcoming 21st-Century Human Landings

Moonquakes can last hours, earthquakes seconds; Astronauts left lunar seismometers 50 years ago showing South Pole-region epicenters likely due to global shrinkage from core cooling; University of Texas researchers used JAXA funding to decipher Moon seismograph data; 7 researchers, T.R. Watters, et al, published 25 January 2024 in Planetary Science Journal that Malapert Massif / other proposed Artemis landing sites not landslide-threatened, but structures / materials / gravity need to accommodate shaking / quivering / trembling say San Francisco engineering firm / American Society of Civil Engineering under a NASA grant

Credits: (NASA/LRO/LROC/ASU/Smithsonian Institution) (L-fault; R-blue box indicates potential Artemis landing site, dot indicates landslide likelihood)

Tuesday / 7 May 2024

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NASA OIG Identifies Needed Orion Improvements Ahead of Crewed Artemis 2 Mission

Report NASA’s Readiness for the Artemis 2 Crewed Mission to Lunar Orbit recommends significant review of Orion spacecraft systems prior to integration and stacking of the Lockheed-Martin / Airbus-built capsule on Artemis SLS rocket for NET Sept 2025 launch of Artemis 2, in light of Artemis 1 anomalies including 100+ areas of unexpected heat shield degradation during reentry, melting of separation bolts, and 4.5-hour communication outage; NASA plans to increase material between separation bolts before Artemis 3 redesign and upgrade DSN servers to prevent a reoccurrence of Goldstone outage, considering modification to less strenuous reentry trajectory

 
Credits: NASA OIG

Tuesday / 30 April 2024

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SpaceX Presents Plan to Use Starship as Lunar Base Construction Element

14 companies selected to develop conceptual framework for Moon commercialization under <US$1M DARPA 10-Year Lunar Architecture Capability Study (LunA-10) contracts deliver proposal briefs at Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium Spring meeting at JHU/APL, with final reports expected in June; SpaceX study envisions lunar base infrastructure established with 3 Starship landings: Utility Starship as power / communications hub, Rolling Stock Starship for rovers and construction machines, Habitation Starship for crew living quarters; Company projects Starship payload cost to lunar surface to drop from <$10,000/kg to ~$1,000/kg after 2030

 
Credits: SpaceX, NASA

Tuesday / 23 April 2024

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NASA Reportedly Considering Major Change to Mission Design of US$93B Artemis Program

Artemis 3 could be modified to test Orion-Starship docking and habitability in LEO or perform Gateway rendezvous in lunar orbit rather than a full-fledged human surface landing as originally envisioned, per Ars Technica report citing anonymous sources; ‘NASA continues to work toward… Artemis III test flight to land astronauts near the lunar South Pole in September of 2026’ per official response; Hardware challenges include Orion heat shield modification, spacesuit and lander development; Operational complexity including first in-space cryogenic refueling likely also contributing to reassessment

 
Credits: NASA

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 19-22 Apr 2024

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Africa Partnership Increasingly Sought by Space Powers USA and China

Space diplomacy in Africa is on the rise, according to London School of Economics analyst, evidenced by strong representation from both USA / NASA and China PRC / CNSA at NewSpace Africa Conference 2024; Angola, Nigeria, Rwanda are signatories to USA-led Artemis Accords, while Egypt and South Africa are participants of International Lunar Research Station, led by China and Russia; 270+ space companies in Africa projected to generate $22.64B by 2026; Africa resources such as cobalt, copper, chromium are essential for building space / lunar technology including craft & communications devices, and untapped reserves of rare earth elements (REE) have potential to disrupt current market in which China produces 70% of global supply

 
Picutred: Tidiane Ouattara Head of the Science, Technology and Space Division at African Union
Credits: NASA, African Union
 

Friday / 19 April 2024

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Firefly Aerospace Set to Announce Blue Ghost Mission 1 Q3/Q4 Launch Window to Moon

Austin TX-based Firefly building on 2-m tall, 3.5-m diameter Blue Ghost lunar lander at newly-expanded 19,231 m2 work space under CLPS US$93.3M task order 19D; Blue Ghost M1 could be 4th Moon surface mission to ride on SpaceX Falcon 9 (Beresheet, Hakuto-R, IM-1) with 30-day launch window TBA in May; The 150-kg capacity lander is to carry 10 NASA payloads with 94-kg mass including regolith-repelling Electrodynamic Dust Shield (KSC), solar wind-Earth magnetic field investigation Lunar Environment Heliospheric X-ray Imager (Boston University), and Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (MSFC), first attempt to utilize GPS on Moon

Pictured (T-B) Firefly CEO Bill Weber, Advisory Board Member Jim Bridenstine, CFO Darren Ma
Credits: Firefly

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 12-15 Apr 2024

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Japan Astronauts to Join 2 Artemis Lunar Surface Missions, Perhaps Becoming First Non-Americans on Moon

Building on prior agreements under which a Japan Astronaut will join a Gateway mission in lunar orbit (JAXA is to provide life support and power for I-Hab module and deliver supplies via HTV-XG spacecraft), USA and Japan are increasing lunar cooperation to include 2 opportunities for JAXA crewmembers to join Artemis Moon landings; In exchange Japan is to provide pressurized lunar rover designed to accommodate 2 astronauts for MSP sojourns up to 30 days on Artemis mission 7 and beyond over 10 year nominal lifespan

Pictured: (Clockwise) USA President Joe Biden, Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Japan Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Masahito Moriyama, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson
Credits: JAXA, NASA