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
Okay, two things before we unpack some lovely lunar vibes: 1. So much happened in lunar exploration last week that this was one difficult edition to concisely contextualize. What an amazing problem to have! The immense pace with which we’re building for our Moon was unthinkable just a decade
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
Chandrayaan
US scientists urge NASA to plan LRO successor A specialized team of US scientists called CLOC-SAT, part of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (LEAG), has released a report urging NASA to plan a replacement for the 2009-launched Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) in order to support the increasingly important, upcoming NASA(
Moon Monday
I’m unwell since a week now so this Moon Monday isn’t as detailed as the usual editions. As it turns out, the lunar news cycle too was unusually slow last week so it’s a missed opportunity to have had a feature section on an intriguing topic. In
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
CLPS
NASA really wants to visit our Moon’s volcanic Gruithuisen Domes NASA has changed the target landing site for Astrobotic’s first Moon lander—launching this year as part of the agency’s CLPS program—from the northeastern lunar lava plain of Lacus Mortis to an unspecified lava plain just
Artemis
Planning the science on NASA’s first Artemis crewed Moon landing mission NASA aims to land astronauts on the Moon mid-decade with Artemis III. While the agency’s selection of SpaceX’s Starship lunar lander and commercial spacesuits—along with the standard Artemis mission inclusions of the SLS rocket and
China and Luna
Dear readers, I have 3 exciting things to share with you today: 1. Moon Monday crossed 4,000 subscribers last week, with the majority gratifyingly continuing to be planetary scientists and engineers, personnel at national space agencies, executives at space companies, and fellow writers & journalists from around the world!
Moon Monday
I’m excited to launch a new writing product next month! Any guesses on what it might be? Hint: Like Moon Monday, it will be the only one of its kind in the world. 🚀 A glimpse of the Moon’s actual dark side While South Korea’s first lunar orbiter
CLPS
Welcome back to Moon Monday! :D 2023 promises to treat us lunatics with seven robotic Moon landing attempts, with possibly three of them from the U.S., two from Japan, and one each from India and Russia. Below are the latest available updates on them all. Moon landing mission updates
Moon Monday
I’ll be taking my year end break from publishing Moon Monday for two weeks, and get the much needed free time to rest, refresh, and reflect. The next edition will be out on January 9, 2023 and cover all updates between now and then. I hope you enjoy the
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