Moon Monday
Moon Monday #229: China extends lead in lunar orbital infrastructure, gets an edge in future crewed missions over the US
Plus: Examples of how Western media narratives of Chinese lunar activities misjudge capabilities and intent
Articles
By Jatan Mehta | Dives into lunar exploration, space technology, Indian space, planetary science, and more.
Moon Monday
Moon Monday #228: The need for resilience in private lunar landing missions through expansive and collaborative testing
ispace Japan’s second Moon lander RESILIENCE launched in January with the aim of a Moon landing. But just like its predecessor Hakuto-R’s fate about two years ago, RESILIENCE crashed into the Moon during its landing attempt on June 6. It was a moment of heartbreak for several lunar
Articles
A pressing PSLV rocket failure and orbital congestion to brood over | Indian Space Progress #28
Plus more mission updates.
US Artemis
Moon Monday #227: Proposed cuts, cancellations, continuations, and changes to NASA’s lunar missions
And other mission updates.
US Artemis
Moon Monday #226: Blue Origin aims to launch its first two Moon missions by next year—with nearly no NASA payloads
Plus: Firefly to carry UAE’s second lunar rover and more.
Articles
Why Moon missions need their own Wikipedia and beyond
Our Moon may be one of the largest satellites in the Solar System but its exploration has been concentrated on select areas. One of these is low lunar orbit, where mapping spacecraft from three countries have been concurrently flying from pole to pole between 50 to 150 kilometers above the
Moon Monday
Moon Monday #223: International researchers to study Chang’e lunar samples, including US ones but without NASA funding
And more such interesting Moon exploration updates from China’s National Space Day on April 24.
Moon Monday
Moon Monday #221: The US is failing to explore lunar water as the principal goal of Artemis
And, countries allied with the US are facing delays in their own missions, allowing China to lead in this aspect of lunar exploration too.
Indian Space
Newly approved Chandrayaan 5 LUPEX mission will drill for water on the Moon and aid Artemis | Indian Space Progress #25-26
Plus: A host of new lunar science results from Chandrayaan 2 and 3. Enjoy this 3200-word Chandrayaan-special. 🌙
Moon Monday
Moon Monday #219: Results from India’s Chandrayaan 3 experiment to benefit future missions eyeing lunar water
👀 🧊 🌘
Moon Monday
Moon Monday #216: Firefly Blue Ghost brings precision landing and lunar sci-tech bounties
Plus: Contextualizing the failure of Intuitive Machines’ second Moon mission and that of Lunar Trailblazer as grave losses for NASA.
Moon Monday
Moon Monday #215: Firefly performs first actual soft lunar landing for the US in the 21st century, bags key firsts
Plus: Intuitive Machines and Lunar Trailblazer launch for Luna while KASA plans the same. And, maybe nobody should “dominate” space.