By Jatan Mehta | Coverage, with context, of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Services Program to send the agency’s science & technology payloads to the Moon on privately owned landers.
Moon Monday
This is a half-yearly appreciation note, and an introduction for readers subscribed after April, that my Moon Monday newsletter is being supported by sponsor Epsilon3—for the third year in a row! Led by Laura and Max, Epsilon3 is a web-based platform to manage, streamline, and reduce risk in complex
Moon Monday
NASA gets serious about extracting oxygen on the Moon On November 6, NASA formally requested input from the US industry on how to go about (competitively) funding a Moon mission payload that will demonstrate extracting oxygen from lunar soil and rocks. Called Lunar Infrastructure Foundational Technologies (LIFT-1), NASA aims for
CLPS
If you’re reading this blog+newsletter, you’re likely in a position of privilege. Please consider donating for the affected innocent kids in the Hamas-Israel war. The Palestine Children’s Relief Fund is the option I’ve supported via since the non-political non-profit is providing basic necessities to children
China and Luna
I’m in Delhi this week to attend the Indian Space Conclave. If you’re around, get in touch to chat space, science, writing, and the Web! Mission updates * JAXA’s SLIM lunar lander flew 5,000 kilometers past the Moon on October 4. Andrew Jones reports that SLIM’s
CLPS
NASA CLPS lunar mission updates from LEAG Below are some notable updates from the sessions I could attend (virtually) at the annual meeting of the NASA-backed Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (LEAG) this September 20–22. CLPS manager Chris Culbert gave a forthright presentation on how the agency’s program to
CLPS
Lunar Starship engines ignite As SpaceX preps for the second test flight of its fully reusable Starship Super Heavy rocket, following April’s dramatic first flight, the company has meanwhile revealed that it performed a vacuum-optimized Raptor engine test fire last month. This firing demonstrates that its Lunar Starship engines
Moon Monday
At long last, Luna 25 launches for the Moon On August 11, a Russian Soyuz 2.1b rocket successfully launched the 1750-kilogram Luna 25 Moon lander, almost 47 years after the former Soviet Union returned lunar samples with Luna 24. The 3.2-meter tall Luna-25 spacecraft separated from Soyuz’s
CLPS
On July 14, Friday at 14:35 IST (09:05 UTC), ISRO launched the robotic Chandrayaan 3 spacecraft for a second attempt to land on the Moon. Chandrayaan 3’s Project Director P. Veeramuthuvel said in a post-launch briefing that the GSLV Mk III rocket injected the spacecraft close to
CLPS
I’m over the Moon to share that Open Lunar Foundation is continuing to sponsor Moon Monday for one more year! 🌗 Open Lunar is a non-profit organization developing space policies, plans, and partnerships to help ensure that our return to the Moon with humans for eventual long-term habitation is peaceful,
CLPS
NASA to push the boundaries of cosmology and Moonbound science with LuSEE-Night NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy are co-developing LuSEE-Night, a first of its kind instrument which will measure faint but unique radio signals from our Universe’s ‘Dark Age’, a slice of time right before the
CLPS
Mission updates * ispace Japan’s first Moon lander, launched on December 11 last year, is now approaching the Moon as part of its fuel-efficient trajectory for an orbital capture attempt in late March. I applaud the fact that ispace has provided an unusually detailed per-subsystem lander status update, and hope
CLPS
Please consider supporting earthquake relief efforts in Turkey and Syria: Donate ♡ Mission updates * The NASA-funded and Advanced Space-led CAPSTONE lunar orbiter was unable to receive commands from January 26. An automatic command-loss timer rebooting the spacecraft on February 6 resolved the issue. All the while teams have been preparing to
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