By Jatan Mehta | The world’s only newsletter dedicated to covering and contextualizing global lunar exploration updates, including plans to return humans this decade.
Moon Monday
Meet RESILIENCE, ispace Japan’s second Moon mission Following ispace Japan’s failed touchdown attempt on the Moon with the M1 mission in April, the company has improved the hardware and software design of the Hakuto-R lander for the M2 mission in late 2024, called “RESILIENCE” to reflect the spirited
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
Chandrayaan
<This edition of Moon Monday was pre-scheduled on Sunday night IST to get published and delivered per usual on Monday since I’m tending to a family need.> I’m delighted to welcome space writer and author Gurbir Singh as an individual sponsor of both Moon Monday and
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
Moon Monday
Today marks 150 weekly editions of archiving and contextualizing global developments in the exploration of our Moon. It’s satiating to work on and write the world’s only such resource. If you enjoy and appreciate my work to serve space communities worldwide, kindly consider sponsoring Moon Monday as an
Moon Monday
Two clarifications from Moon Monday #148: Most of the enhanced mobility I referred to provided by Axiom’s upcoming AxEMU spacesuits for crewed Artemis astronauts isn’t in contrast to NASA’s xEMU units but rather the current EMU suits in operation at the International Space Station. In fact, being
Moon Monday
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
Mission updates * CNSA announced on September 29 that China will indeed launch the Chang’e 6 farside sample return spacecraft and its supporting orbiter next year. * Following two maneuvers last month to raise the SLIM lunar lander’s Earthbound orbit, JAXA fired the spacecraft’s engines on October 1 to
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
Artemis
Japan launches the SLIM lunar lander with an unprecedented aim On September 7, Japan launched the 2012-proposed SLIM lander to the Moon. Shortly after separating from the upper stage of its H-IIA launch vehicle in Earth orbit, SLIM completed sun acquisition control and JAXA reported its health to be normal.
Chandrayaan
Today, September 4, ISRO set the Chandrayaan 3 Moon lander Vikram in sleep mode around 3:30 UTC. This was shortly after sending commands to turn off its three active instruments: the thermal probe, the seismometer, and the plasma experiment. Likewise, a fully charged Pragyan rover, which has traversed 100
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