Moon Monday #209: Let’s be high on launch and low on provocation

Updates on CLPS, ispace, Artemis, Chandrayaan 4, and more. Read to the end for a fact check on an op-ed.

How to follow CLPS mission updates

With a fleet of NASA-supported robotic Moon landers part of the agency’s CLPS program launching throughout this decade, I’ve compiled an exhaustive rundown for you to be up to speed on these novel missions: All about CLPS Moon landing missions 🌗 I update this page every month or two.

Everything you need to know about NASA CLPS Moon landing missions

A look at the armada of robotic landers NASA is riding to the Moon this decade.

Moon Monday #208: What makes a lunar landing mission “successful”?

Before we begin, a note that my thoughts are with everyone affected by the fires in southern California as well as by last week’s 6.8-magnitude earthquake in Xizang, China. The Moon lander duo from ispace Japan and US-based Firefly Aerospace are being targeted for launch by SpaceX on

Moon Monday #207: A whole bunch of global mission updates and lunar developments

And three little things to share.

Indian Space Progress #23: How ISRO et al. laid the groundwork for a decade this year

I’m delighted to welcome GalaxEye Space as the latest sponsor of my Indian Space Progress blog+newsletter! 🚀 Bangalore-based startup GalaxEye is developing hybrid Earth observation satellites with multi-spectral optical imaging plus synthetic aperture radar (SAR) capabilities, with the first launch targeted next year. 🛰️ While 2023 was an incredible year

Moon Monday #206: The state of global lunar exploration in 2024

Plus, my experience at the Galaxy Forum in Wenchang, China to that end.

Moon Monday #205: The one from Wenchang!

Hello from China! I’m at the four-day 2024 international Galaxy Forum, where I along with speakers from over 12 countries are discussing global plans on lunar exploration, science from the Moon, and cooperative approaches to those ends. This week’s Moon Monday thus includes several fresh, firsthand lunar updates

Moon Monday #204: The one with no tying theme, like a VIPER-less Artemis

Read to the end to see a reader gift made of processed lunar regolith. ?

Indian Space Progress #22: How Chandrayaan 1, 2 and 3 leveraged their view from the Moon

ISRO’s Chandrayaan craft have viewed a solar eclipse, studied the Sun’s flares, and observed Earth as an exoplanet, all from the vantage point of lunar orbit.

Moon Monday #203: Artemis updates, China and Luna, ESA<>JAXA, and more

Thank you for having signed up for my no-award winning Moon Monday blog+newsletter! Its motivation was to exist because nothing like it did to capture the world’s march to the Moon. 🌝 If you’re one of the 8,000+ lunatics who enjoys this free curated community resource, you

Moon Monday #202: A bao-burrito-bhel of global lunar updates

Dating farside volcanic samples, awaiting the next wave of landers, and disliking opaque orbital operations.

Moon Monday

Moon Monday #201: Scientists can now study exotic Chang’e 6 lunar samples

Plus: New round of Chang’e 5 sample studies, gifting part of the Moon, and Sino-US cooperation

Moon Monday

Moon Monday #200: Thank you, a crewed Chinese rover, Artemis updates, and more

Welcome to the 200th edition of my Moon Monday blog+newsletter! 🚀🌗 I’d like to take this moment to highlight four things working on Moon Monday has enabled: 1. An extensive 4-year archive of curated and contextualized global lunar exploration developments, with embedded links to everything. All editions are completely

Talks

I write for you, not social media or SEO

Many of my headlines make little sense to Google, Web Search Engines, and for SEO. For example, I titled Moon Monday #199 as “Not the fault in our stars but certainly stressful faults on our Moon”. Most likely, mainstream social media algorithms don’t care much for such headlines either.

Moon Monday

Moon Monday #199: Not the fault in our stars but certainly stressful faults on our Moon

Let’s study Moonquakes to not let them shake a Moonbase.

Moon Monday

Moon Monday #198: Suit up to walk under Moonlight, and grab global mission updates

First look at the Artemis Moonwalking suit Following China’s unveiling of its lunar spacesuit last month, Axiom Space has revealed the latest design of its AxEMU suit that astronauts will wear on NASA’s crewed Artemis III lunar surface mission later this decade. The first-time unveiling of the suit

Chandrayaan

Discussing India’s lunar exploration heading with Carnegie India (podcast)

I was a guest on Carnegie India’s podcast Interpreting India. In light of the recently approved Chandrayaan 4 sample return mission, we discuss for a good 45 minutes where India’s Moon exploration plans are heading, and what are the enablers and constraints on the increasingly complex road for

Moon Monday

Moon Monday #197: Starship Artemis, and lunar mission updates

NASA’s road to the Moon inches through Starship SpaceX’s fifth launch of its fully integrated Starship Super Heavy rocket on October 13 was a resounding success, with both the Super Heavy booster and the Starship second stage completing their flight as well as soft return objectives. With this

Indian Space Progress

Indian Space Progress #20–21: ISRO’s plan to study Venus alongside NASA and ESA

Also in this special edition: ISRO’s ambitions to fetch samples from the Moon, build a space station, and develop a heavy-lift rocket!

Japan and Selene

Moon Monday #196: Confusion about lunar water and LUPEX, and papers plus mission updates

You can now follow my articles on some non-questionable social networks that also federate (interoperate): Flipboard, Mastodon and Bluesky. The hunt for water on the Moon continues US researchers find that permanently shadowed regions up to 77° latitude—which is outside the Moon’s south pole—could host surface and

Visual Space

Let’s explore our Moon’s mountains! 🌖

The Moon is home to some amazing mountains. Unlike the millions of years it takes for most mountains on Earth to form via slowly colliding tectonic plates, most lunar mountains form near-instantly through asteroid or cometary impacts. Here are some resources to explore them. 🗻 1. With cool elevation graphs and

Moon Monday

Moon Monday #195: Little LUNA on Earth, a Sino spacesuit, and communicating navcom

You know how I remarked in the previous Moon Monday about having two feature stories instead of one to adequately contextualize big new developments? Well, this week’s Moon Monday has three! For Europe, China, and the US. 🙈 Europe’s new test facility brings more of those lunar vibes on

Videos

Video: The next Moon landing missions by Intuitive Machines for NASA CLPS

A popular YouTube channel has worked with me to create another video based on my Moon Monday blog+newsletter, this time on the next three Moon landing missions by Intuitive Machines for NASA as part of the agency’s CLPS program. Note: I didn’t choose the video title. My