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.
CLPS
In Moon Monday #166, I wrote how Intuitive Machines and NASA skewed the success criteria of the former’s first Moon landing mission. I did not think the article would be taken as well as it was: Celestial Citizen, in their latest Continuum newsletter: While a private endeavor like Intuitive
Moon Monday
An FYI before we begin: If you follow me on social media—especially LinkedIn, Twitter, the Fediverse or Bluesky—read this life update from my other blog: Embracing a simple but effective digital life. An intuitive success criteria? It turns out more retrospective corrections are needed for the February 22
Moon Monday
I’m thrilled to welcome Off Planet Research as the newest sponsor of Moon Monday! The Everett-based company specializes in creating lunar soil simulants that help test landers, rovers, and science experiments with high fidelity. Personally, I’m intrigued by their icy regolith simulant OPRFLCROSS2 as it falls under a
Moon Monday
An announcement before we begin this week’s Moon Monday: I’m honored and stoked to have been invited by the European Space Agency to deliver a talk on Chandrayaan 3 and India’s lunar ambitions at the Space for Inspiration event this Thursday, January 18. If you’re attending
CLPS
Astrobotic launches its first spacecraft built to land on the Moon At 7:18 UTC today, January 8, Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander blasted off to space onboard the inaugural flight of ULA’s Vulcan rocket, at long last marking the formal start of missions part of NASA’s CLPS
CLPS
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
Moon Monday
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
Chandrayaan
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
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