Tuesday / 21 March 2023

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Australia / International Space Companies to Develop 2 Rover Prototypes for Moon to Mars Trailblazer Initiative

Launching to Moon NET 2026, Trailblazer rover program supported by commerce-centered Australian Space Agency with Stage 1 awards of AU$5M (US$2.7) to 2 industry consortia: AROSE led by Fugro (NL) / Nova Systems (AU) and group led by EPE (AU) / Lunar Outpost Oceania, subsidiary of Lunar Outpost (USA) with support from CO School of Mines, Saber Astronautics (AU); Coinciding with the announcement, NASA Administrator Nelson and Deputy Melroy tour Australia this week with stops at ASA HQ in Adelaide, Parliament House & National Press Club 23 March

Pictured: L-R: EPE Director Ben Sorensen, ASA Head Enrico Palermo, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, NASA Deputy Director Pamela Melroy, ASA Chair Megan Clark, ASA CTO Aude Vignelles, Lunar Outpost CEO Justin Cyrus Credits: EPE

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 17-20 March 2023

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China Plans for Lunar Station Science, India Advancing Chandrayaan-3 Landing, UK Developing Nuclear Reactor

Earth Observation, stellar formation and origin of Moon are science focus areas for ILRS per Zou Yongliao of CAS; Lunar agriculture and ISRU also to be prominent in upcoming phase 4 CLEP missions Chang’E 6-8 (NET 2024, 2026, 2028); ISRO on track for late June / early July launch of Chandrayaan-3 following successful vibration / acoustic and electromagnetic testing; UK Space Agency to provide an additional US$3.53M to Rolls-Royce-led micro-reactor project supported by Sheffield, Oxford, Brighton, Bangor universities with goal of deployment on Moon circa 2029

Credits: CNSA, CAS, ISRO, Rolls-Royce

Friday / 17 March 2023

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Artemis 3 & 4 Human Landing Missions Science Teams to be Lead by NASA’s Noah Petro and Barbara Cohen

Newly appointed science leads for Moon South Pole A-3 and 4 missions, Petro and Cohen, are set to become vital coordinators / voices for science teams, geology teams and payload teams – to maximize science during human return to Moon 2025-2027; Petro works with LRO & LEAG, will convene LSSW #19 Artemis 3 Landing Sites Workshop 4-5 April, and presented Mons Malapert advocacy at LSSW #12; Cohen is PI for Lunar Flashlight and Ion-Trap Mass Spectrometer (aboard Astrobotic Peregrine M1), works with LRO, Mars Science Laboratory

Credits: NASA, GSFC, Jay Friedlander

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

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 10-13 March 2023

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Artemis Moon Exploration Advances with Increased Funding Proposal, Upcoming Crew and Spacesuits Reveal

Biden-Harris Administration fiscal year 2024 USA budget allocates US$27.2B for NASA, a 7.1% increase, with $8.1B for lunar exploration & $949M for Mars sample return; Artemis II 4-member crew to be announced at joint NASA / CSA-ASC joint press event at JSC Ellington Field 3 April, with astronaut interviews 4 April; Prototype Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU) space suits for Artemis III lunar surface exploration being developed by Axiom / Raytheon subsidiary Collins Aerospace under $3.5B contract running through 2034 to be demonstrated 15 March at Space Center Houston

Credits: NASA

Friday / 10 March 2023

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Farside Radio Astronomy to be Pioneered by LuSEE-Night CLPS Mission NET Late 2025

Landing near northern rim of Nassau crater on lunar farside (23.81°S, 176.83°E) on TBD commercial lander, Lunar Surface Electromagnetics Experiment-Night (LuSEE-Night) led by PI Stuart Bale (UC-Berkeley), co-investigator Jack Burns (CU Boulder) and DOE / Brookhaven National Lab is slated to be the first radio astronomy precursor to test low frequency detection limits (<50 MHz) in the pursuit of cosmological dark ages (380,000 years post-Big Bang) observation via 21-cm neutral hydrogen emissions; LuSEE-Night is to operate throughout lunar night / day cycle for up to 2 years thanks to 40-kg battery system

Pictured: PI Stuart Bale; Paul O’Connor, Anže Slosar, Sven Herrmann of Brookhaven Lab; Credits: DOE, NASA, UC-Berkeley, LinkedIn

Tuesday / 7 March 2023

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Dynetics Touts Human Landing System Technology Advances Ahead of June HLS SLD Selection

Under NASA NextSTEP-2 Appendix N US$45M award, Leidos subsidiary Dynetics has matured key equipment it hopes will strengthen its bid with partner Northrop Grumman for Appendix P: Human Landing System Sustaining Lunar Development & Demonstration contract / uncrewed & crewed demo missions around Artemis 5 or later (NET 2028); Tech validations include methalox main / RCS propulsion testing at MSFC, Cryogenic Fluid transfer demonstration at GRC, Electrodynamic Dust Shield modules (first created at KSC); Blue Origin-led team including Draper, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Astrobotic, Honeybee Robotics also competing for Appendix P contract

Pictured: Dynetics HLS Manager Andy Crocker; Credits: Dynetics, NASA

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 3-6 March 2023

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ispace HAKUTO-R M1 Nearing Moon / Attempt at 1st Commercial Landing, M2 and M3 to Advance ‘Cislunar Ecosystem’

Now on Moon-bound trajectory <800,000km from Earth (having reached distance of 1,376,000km in fuel efficient route), Hakuto-R lander team managing higher than expected thermal loads while working toward 6th ‘mission success milestone’, clearing way for Lunar Orbital Insertion by mid-March, landing on Moon late-April; M2 (NET 2024) Structural Thermal Model under construction in Japan, flight model build to start NET April in Germany; M3 (NET 2024) with Draper under US$73M NASA CLPS contract to carry AstronetX astronomical imager L-CAM; ispace mission control located in Tokyo with subsidiary offices in Luxembourg and Denver CO

Pictured: (T-B) ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada, ispace CTO Ryo Ujiie; Credits: ispace, Canadensys

Friday / 3 March 2023

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Moon Time Standardization May Advance International Cislunar Communication, Navigation Capabilities

Interoperable ‘LunaNet’ communication / navigation protocol initiative will require agreement on common time on & around Moon similar to Coordinated Universal Time on Earth & Earth orbit, per ESA statement; Standard Moon time would enable NASA Lunar Communications Relay and Navigation Systems, ESA Moonlight and other nodes in Moon network to share spatial measurement as with Earth-based International Terrestrial Reference Frame used by GNSS; Nature and composition of governing organization and whether to fix Moon time to Earth time or create independent local selenocentric system TBD by lunar stakeholders

Pictured: ESA Moonlight Navigation Manager Javier Ventura-Traveset, ESA Navigation Engineer Pietro Giordano; Credits: ESA, NASA, Twitter

Tuesday / 28 Feb 2023

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Lunar Crew Module / Lander Mockups on Display as CMSA to Announce Taikonauts for Shenzhou-16 & 17

30 years of steady progress toward and realization of human exploration in space (27 missions / 10 crewed) being celebrated at 3-month exhibit at National Museum of China in Beijing featuring models of China Manned Space Agency next-generation crewed spacecraft and lunar surface lander, which are to be launched via 25,906 kN-thrust Long March 10 (formerly LM-5DY) rocket in 2020s; 6 crewmembers for next 2 missions to Tiangong Space Station to be revealed as international astronaut exchanges under consideration

Pictured: (T-B) CMSA Director Hao Chun, Taikonaut Yang Liwei, CMSA Deputy Chief Designer Chen Shanguang; Credits: CMSA, CGTN screengrab, Wikipedia