Category Archives: Advanced Technology

Tuesday / 24 Oct 2023

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ISRO Chairman Looking Forward to Domestic Human Spaceflight Including Women Vyomanauts to Moon 2040

Indian Human Spaceflight Programm (IHSP) on track to launch crewed mission to space following successful Test Vehicle Abort Mission-1, the first of 4 planned abort tests to be conducted prior to 3 Gaganyaan uncrewed test flights in 2024 culminating in 3-crewmember Gaganyaan-4 mission NET 2025; Female-appearing humanoid robot Vyommitra to ride on Gaganyaan-2 & 3, while ISRO will seek human women Vyomanauts from future classes of fighter pilots in the long term, and recruit women scientists to work in space in the near-term per S Somanath

Credits: ISRO

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 13-16 Oct 2023

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Astronomy from the Moon is Increasing Focus of International Moon Missions

Unique vantage of lunar surface is attracting multitude of astronomy initiatives: ILO-X Galaxy imaging precursor instrument suite launching on Intuitive Machines Nova-C lander NET Nov 15; AstronetX Lunar-based Camera (L-CAM), led by Tabetha Boyajian of LSU, may launch on ispace Mission 2 NET 2024; Dipole antenna LuSEE-Lite heading to Schrödinger Basin aboard Draper / ispace APEX 1.0 lander NET 2025, while 4-monopole antenna LuSEE-Night expected to launch to Moon far side in late 2025 / early 2026 on Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost lander; CNSA Chang’e-8 to conduct soft-x-ray (<3 KeV) observation NET 2028

Credits:

Friday / 13 Oct 2023

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China Bolstering Very-Long-Baseline Interferometry Network With 2 New Telescopes for Cislunar / Deep Space Tracking

The 5th and 6th radio telescopes of the China VLBI Network are under construction following groundbreaking at sites in Changbai Mountains (near North Korea border) 11 Oct and in Shigatse, Tibet Autonomous Region, China in September; Shigatse station to feature 40-m radio telescope operating at 4,100-m; When linked to Nanshan 25m Radio Telescope (Ürümqi), Tianma 65-m Telescope (Shanghai), Beijing 50-m antenna (Miyun) and Yunnan Astronomical Observatory 40-meter radio telescope (Kunming), network will extend to 3800 km and allow observation of multiple spacecraft with 18% increased resolution

Pictured: SHAO Director Shen Zhiqiang; Credits: SHAO, NAOC, CAS, CNSA

Friday / 8 Sep 2023

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Japan is Latest Nation to Join Lunar Exploration Wave with SLIM Lander on Way to Moon

JAXA controllers guiding US$100M Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) as orbital raising maneuvers set to commence, beginning fuel-efficient journey expected to take 3-4 months to reach lunar orbit with 100m-accuracy soft landing east of Shioli crater (13.2°S, 25.2°E) on 15° slope in late Jan / early Feb 2024; Advanced vision-based navigation system and belly landing technique to allow ‘landing where we want’ per JAXA President Hiroshi Yamakawa, capabilities to be utilized in JAXA-ISRO LUPEX polar mission NET 2025, Lunar Cruiser pressurized crew vehicle for Artemis late 2020s, and mid-sized lunar cargo lander early 2030s

Credits: JAXA

Friday / 1 Sep 2023

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Ecliptic Enterprises Corporation to Continue Advancing Technology for Space and Moon as ARQUIMEA Subsidiary

Optical space system provider Ecliptic Enterprises of Pasadena, California to be acquired by technology developer ARQUIMEA – headquartered in Spain, with operations in Canary Islands, Singapore and USA employing 500+; Ecliptic has received a US$5M cash infusion to support design of radiation hardened payloads for space and lunar applications including high-res multispectral imagers for Earth observation and routers for use on and around Moon; ARQUIMEA USA CEO Jesus Delgado tells Parabolic Arc he expects to quickly grow Ecliptic revenue from $10M to $50M

Credits: Ecliptic Enterprises, ARQUIMEA

Friday / 28 July 2023

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Nokia on Track for 4G Cellular Communication Technology for Future Moon, Mars Missions NET 2024

Planning to brave unexplored conditions of Moon south pole Shackleton crater, Nokia Bell Labs (subsidiary of Finland parent company) intends to provide first-ever lunar 4G/LTE cellular internet technology via NASA Tipping Point award and in partnership with Intuitive Machines; IM-2 Nova-C lander will host space-hardened version of 4G/LTE microcell base station unit while 2 lunar vehicles (Lunar Outpost Rover and IM Micro-Nova Hopper) will host radio frequency antennae; IM-2 mission to launch from KSC on SpaceX Falcon 9 NET 2024, plan to provide critical communication networks for future crewed Artemis and robotic missions

Credits: Intuitive Machines, Nokia Bell Labs, NASA

Friday / 30 June 2023

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4 Teams Advance in NASA Competition to Provide Energy Solutions for Lunar Night Survival

Watts on the Moon, a NASA STMD Centennial Challenges program, to award US$400,000 / ea to Phase 2, Level 2 winners who will go on to compete in Phase 2, Level 3: UC Santa Barbara Experimental Cosmology (High Efficiency Long-Range Power Solution), Michigan Technological University Planetary Surface Technology Development Lab (Tethered Mechanism for Persistent Energy Storage and Transmission), Electric Moon (Power the Moon with GaN Multilevel Converters), Orbital Mining Corporation (No Replacement For DC-placement); 2 finalists will have technology tested in vacuum chamber simulating lunar conditions and split $1.5M prize NET 2024

Pictured: MSFC Public Affairs Officer Jonathan Deal, Centennial Challenges Program Manager Denise Morris; Credits: NASA

Friday / 5 May 2023

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Lunar Payload and Climate Science Ideas Sought for NASA Entrepreneurs Challenge 2023

NASA Entrepreneurs Challenge offering US$1M in prize money for innovative concepts in two areas: commercially viable lunar payloads and climate science achievable with small instruments and / or analysis of existing available data; Contest running on HeroX crowdsourcing platform, currently 179 innovators on 22 teams competing for round 1, in which 20 $16k prizes to be awarded 10 August; 8 organizational round 2 winners to receive $85k and access to pitch opportunity at Defense TechConnect Innovation Summit and Expo 28-30 Nov in Washington DC; SMD Strategy 4.1 on diversity and inclusion to be emphasized in contest

Credits: NASA
 

Friday / 28 April 2023

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China Aiming for Boots on Moon this Decade as ispace of Japan Reviews M1 Telemetry Data

CLEP Chief Designer Wu Weiren emphatically states there is ‘no question’ that Taikonauts will have landed on Moon by 2030 as lunar build-out plans including ‘Red Star’ crater and ‘Clover’ lunar surface 4-module base designs intended to shelter 3-4 Moon explorers and ‘Chinese Super Mason’ autonomous 3D brick-printing robot; CE-6 launching NET 2025, CE-7 NET 2026, Super Mason slated for in-situ demo during CE-8 NET 2028; Meanwhile ispace working to determine cause of Hakuto-R landing failure after accomplishing 8 of 10 milestone goals, planning M2 NET 2024, M3 with Draper under $73M CLPS award NET 2025

Credits: CNSA, Royal Aeronautical Society, NASA

Friday / 14 April 2023

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ispace Set to Land HAKUTO-R, Aiming to Operate First Commercial Lander on Moon as Stock Surges

HAKUTO-R M1 lander is currently in 100 x 2,300 km elliptical lunar orbit as mission controllers prepare to execute maneuvers, circularizing orbit at 100 km ahead of 25 April at 15:40 UTC landing sequence initiation / touchdown in Atlas Crater (47.5°N, 44.4°E) 1 hour later at 16:40 UTC; Alternative landing sites within Lacus Somniorum, Sinus Iridium and Oceanus Procellarum may be targeted 26 April, 1 May and 3 May; Meanwhile on Earth ispace shares on Tokyo Stock Exchange make strong debut going from ¥254 (US$1.92) to ¥1,201 ($9.06)

Pictured: (T-B) ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada, ispace CFO Jumpei Nozaki; Credits: ispace