Tuesday / 1 October 2024

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Space Age Achieves 40 Full Years of Daily Publishing

Space Age Publishing Company celebrates 40 years today of publishing Lunar Enterprise Daily; the first issue appeared 1 Oct 1984 and was called SpaceTime Daily; it has been through a somewhat checkered career and published under several names such as Space Daily, Space Fax Daily and Global Fax Daily, faxes beginning with a 5 by 7 inch version; after migration and arrival here in Hawaii in 1990, it became Lunar Enterprise Daily in 2001 at the beginning of the 21st century, beginning of the new millennium, and continues as such, serving the lunar exploration, habitation and development community

Credits: (SPC, NASA)

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)

Friday / 20 September 2024

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India Lunar Goals Boosted by Additional Funding, Aiming for 2027 Chandrayaan-4, Human Moon Landing 2040

One of 5 nations with Moon soft-landing, India plans its 2nd controlled Moon landing by 2027 with Chandrayaan-4, using 2 LVM3 rockets, docking / undocking in lunar orbit, regolith sample return / analysis, budget Rs 2,104 crore / US$251.6M, triple that of Chandrayaan-3; New launch vehicle development given Rs 8,240 crore / US$985.3M to triple payload of LVM3 at 1.5 times cost; Chandrayaan-5 (previously LUPEX) plans Indian launch vehicle / lander and JAXA rover to explore Moon South Pole permanently shadowed regions; crewed Moon landing sought 2040

Credits: (L – LVM3 rocket, ISRO; C – Chandrayaan-3 lander now at Statio Shiv Shakti 69.373°S 32.319°E, ISRO; R – JAXA Lunar Polar Exploration rover, Mitsubishi)

Tuesday / 17 September 2024

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Intuitive Machines Continues Search for Moon Ice / Water

NET January 2025, Intuitive Machines (IM) plans to launch IM-2 “Athena” Nova-C lunar lander and Lunar Trailblazer orbiter aboard Falcon 9; lander headed for Shackleton connecting ridge near Moon South Pole has Micro-Nova Hopper propulsive drone to measure surface hydrogen, PRIME-1 drill ~1 meter long, commercial off-the-shelf spectrometer, Nokia LTE 4G communications system to test; orbiter will map light wavelengths on Moon surface continuing search for water begun by Chandrayaan-1; as part of Artemis, IM receives its 4th NASA CLPS award, CP-22, US$116.9 M to deliver six instruments in 2027 to the Moon South Pole; IM is on NASDAQ as LUNR

 

Credits: (L-orbiter) Lockheed Martin, (C-hopper) Intuitive Machines, (R-light map, water / hydroxyl are blue / violet) ISRO/NASA/JPL-Caltech/Brown University/USGS

Wednesday / 11 September 2024

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Commercial Missions Aiming for 2024 Lunar Touchdown

Firefly has potential mid-November launch for its 1st Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) mission under ~US$93M NASA award, of Blue Ghost lander with 10 NASA payloads to Mare Crisium at 18.56°N, 61.81°E; Intuitive Machines may launch December with its 2nd lunar mission IM-2, under ~US$47M NASA CLPS award, of Nova-C lander with drill / mass spectrometer / solar panels / Caltech Lunar Trailblazer, to Shackleton connecting ridge in South Pole region; Outside of CLPS, ispace of Japan Hakuto-R Mission 2 of Resilience lander NET December will take micro-rover ~26x32x54 cm with HD camera, regolith-acquiring shovel to further NASA-led Artemis program; all 3 projects expect to launch aboard SpaceX Falcon 9

 

Credits: Intuitive Machines (L), Firefly Aerospace (R)

Friday / 30 August 2024

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Firefly Aerospace Aiming for NET December Launch, Blue Ghost Testing at JPL

Firefly may become 3rd American company attempting lunar landing; Blue Ghost lander now being tested at JPL, designed for future annual Moon payload services; first mission “Ghost Riders in the Sky” to launch NET Dec from Florida on Falcon 9, deliver 10 payloads per CLPS Task Order 19D and others to Mare Crisium after ~45 days in transit, operating one lunar / 14 Earth days and 5 lunar night hours; an “end-to-end space transportation company”, Firefly has new CEO Jason Kim, 700 employees, 4,650 sq meter facility, 230 sq meter clean room 307 km from Dallas TX 

Credits: Firefly Aerospace, NASA

August 2024 Update

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Moon Back SoonLunar Enterprise Daily Will Resume Publication Asap; Thank You For Your Understanding And Support. – Editor

Credit: NASA

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 17-20 May 2024

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In Peace for All?

As USA, China, and India advance toward declared human Moon landings, cooperative models of interaction based on existing international agreements regarding Antarctica and the High Seas may inform lunar activities; Antarctic Treaty (1959) proscribes aggression under Article 1, ‘Antarctica shall be used for peaceful purposes only’ as does Convention on the High Seas (1958), Article 88, ‘The high seas shall be reserved for peaceful purposes’, sentiments which should serve as conceptual guidance for Moon agreements under consideration by UNOOSA / UN COPUOS, Artemis Accords, ILRS, NASA OTPS, ILOA, MVA and other stakeholders

 
Credits: NASA, UN

Friday / 17 May 2024

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USA Space Thought Leaders Express Urgency of Moon Return and Maintaining Human Presence in Space

Invoking concepts such as rule of law, democracy, and human rights, former NASA director / Astronaut (T-B) Charles Bolden, George Washington University professor Scott Pace and retired USSF officer William Liquori call for ‘generational shift’ toward commercial human outposts in cis-lunar and near-Earth space as ‘critical lunar geography’ such as the lunar south pole and far side regions increase in international strategic, economic, scientific interest and activity; Citing 24 years of continuous human occupation of ISS, co-authors stress crewed spaceflight is ‘ultimate venue’ for establishing ethical and legal norms with Apollo ‘Peace for All’ heritage

 
Credits: NASA

Tuesday / 14 May 2024

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ispace Projects Significant Demand of Lunar Services, ISRO Targeting Shiv Shakti with Chandrayaan-4

Japan first commercial lunar lander company ispace projecting 138% increase in year-on-year net sales, growing to JPY¥4,033M (US$25.8M) in FY2024 possibly buoyed by international orders for lunar landers and robots, especially from USA, which may mitigate expected JPY¥12,465M ($79.8M) loss, with ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada (R) characterizing business environment as ‘quite positive‘ in light of USA-Japan Artemis agreement; Nilesh Desai, director of Space Applications Centre (SAC) in Ahmedabad, declares Shiv Shakti point (Statio Shiv Shakti by IAU designation, 69.373°S, 32.319°E) will be destination of Chandrayaan-4, building on successful Chandrayaan-3 mission, possibly returning sample closer to MSP than any previous NET 2028

 
Credits: ispace, ISRO, SAC