What is pending for SpaceX Starship to be a Moonship for NASA astronauts? Nearly everything.

Moon Monday #276: NASA’s road to putting humans on the Moon through SpaceX Starship continues to face a receding sea of milestones to achieve.

Science results from India’s Chandrayaan 3 Moon mission | Moon Monday #275

The near-polar lunar surface and environment had never been measured in-situ before Chandrayaan 3 arrived. Now our understanding of it has been grounded in measurements just as we prepare to send a wave of Moon missions.

Moon Monday #274: Artemis updates and Japanese missions galore

Artemis updates * Science communicator Hank Green made this interactive website of photos spread across the timeline of the Artemis II lunar mission and flyby. * Among the technological checkpoints passed by Artemis II, the NASA-MIT-developed optical laser communications terminal on the Orion spacecraft was successfully used to transmit and receive data

Articles on Venus, the ignored

* Why explore Venus * VERITAS, NASA’s Venus mapper * EnVision, Europe’s mission to Venus * ISRO’s plan to study Venus in unprecedented detail alongside NASA and ESA Related: Coverage of India’s exploration of Mars Like my efforts to provide free resources for space communities worldwide? Kindly sponsor my work

Articles on moons other than our Moon

The not-Moon-Monday edition. 🌝

India’s Chandrayaan 4 lunar sampling mission cross-pollinates science, rockets, governance, and human spaceflight

Part 4 of India’s space launch crisis: Why India needs to launch Chandrayaan 4 in time to ensure maximum national and international benefits | Moon Monday #273 and Indian Space Progress #38

Articles on future Chandrayaan missions

* Chandrayaan 4 will bring unique Moon materials—and maybe a giant scientific leap for India * The case for India and China to exchange lunar samples * Why India needs to launch Chandrayaan 4 in time to ensure maximum national and international benefits * Chandrayaan 5 LUPEX mission will drill for water on

Articles: Science from Chandrayaan 3

* How Chandrayaan 3 contributed insights on our Moon’s origin and evolution * Results from Chandrayaan 3 thermal experiment benefit future missions eyeing lunar water * Chandrayaan 3 rover may (or may not) have stumbled upon the Moon’s mantle material * Chandrayaan 3 orbiter observed Earth like an exoplanet * An overview of

Articles: From a crashing Chandrayaan 2 to an upright Chandrayaan 3 on the Moon

* On Chandrayaan 2’s landing attempt failure * Overview of Chandrayaan 2, India’s first Moon landing attempt * Watching Chandrayaan 2 launch * Explainer: Why did it take so long to find the Chandrayaan 2 lander? * Chandrayaan 2, the orbiter to remember * India aims for the Moon again with launch of Chandrayaan

Poem: Don’t screw up the Moon

Let’s explore explore our Moon and its archival boon of Earth’s midnight and afternoon Let’s return return to the gray blemishes for its scientific promises and its technological wishes Let’s also preserve preserve Luna’s natural dents its phases and cultural crescents and the serene sights

With Artemis II done, challenges confront NASA to send astronauts on Artemis III and IV | Moon Monday #272

Key developments to watch out for this year as both China and the US aim to land humans on the Moon by the end of this decade.

Articles on Chandrayaan 2, the orbiter to remember

* ISRO’s Chandrayaan 2 orbiter has been creating the highest resolution map of the Moon * Lunar science galore from Chandrayaan 2 * How the Chandrayaan 2 orbiter is a Sun watcher at the Moon * The search for lunar water deepens * International collaboration and outlook: * ISRO has been aiding NASA in Artemis

Explore

Articles on Chandrayaan 1, India’s first Moon mission

* Looking back at Chandrayaan 1 and forward to Artemis * How NASA and India discovered water on our Moon * Interviewing Chandrayaan 1’s Mission Director * How Chandrayaan 1 viewed a solar eclipse from the Moon * Tangent: Kids in South Korea and a Moon mission Like my efforts to provide free resources

Moon Monday

Did NASA’s Artemis II mission really do lunar science or go to the Moon for all humanity?

An unfortunate breakdown of too many giant leaps of imagination. | Moon Monday #271

Verses

Poem: Back to the Moon..

For me not thee, but still for humanity..

Verses

Poem: Selene, smashed not shattered

Tucked in a tiny timed capsule against its wonky, worldly windows mesmerized the momentary Moonfarers at sweeping sights of Selene Creased by craters and crowning peaks melts and mountains molded in weeks amid barrages of ballistically laid beads lingered the landscape of Luna What the world could view is impact

Moon Monday

Artemis II astronauts gazed at our Moon with joy, curiosity, and reverence. Through finer robotic orbital views, so can you.

Thanks to our robotic explorers, and the great leveler that is the Internet, you too can “Copy, Moon joy.” | Moon Monday #270

Moon Monday

Why haven’t humans gone back to the Moon no longer a valid question thanks to NASA Artemis II lunar flyby

Plus: A poetic ode to our exploration of Luna | Moon Monday #269

Verses

Poem: Antariksh ki pyaas / अंतरिक्ष की प्यास / The thirst for space

Original in Hindustani, as English transliteration and in देवनागरी, followed by its English translation (though not as lyrical): Antariksh ki pyaas Woh bachpan ki kitaabe jisne dikhaye sitaare aaj bhi yaad se nihaare Durbin ki drishṭi me jagmag falak aur yaano ki gati se graho ki jalak Kalpana

Indian Space

India’s rockets will not meet its civil space and strategic launch manifest even at peak performance

Part 3 of India’s space launch crisis | Indian Space Progress #37

Moon Monday

Ignition, not yet liftoff, of NASA’s ambitious Artemis Moonbase plan | Moon Monday #268

Plus: NASA in final prep to launch Artemis II astronauts around Luna.

Moon Monday

China surfaces details of spacecraft to land humans on Luna by 2030 | Moon Monday #267

From landing system development to trajectory design and landing site selection to abort scenarios.

Moon Monday

Moon Monday #266: Current mission updates and future governance questions

* On February 25, NASA rolled back the SLS rocket and its attached Orion spacecraft from the vehicle’s launchpad at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to its assembly building about seven kilometers away. Technicians then replaced a dislodged seal in a fueling interface of the rocket’s

Moon Monday

NASA falters in communications yet again with Lunar Trailblazer failure | Moon Monday #265

Plus: Parallel developments show how open access NASA is when the agency is at its best.