Tuesday / 7 May 2024

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NASA OIG Identifies Needed Orion Improvements Ahead of Crewed Artemis 2 Mission

Report NASA’s Readiness for the Artemis 2 Crewed Mission to Lunar Orbit recommends significant review of Orion spacecraft systems prior to integration and stacking of the Lockheed-Martin / Airbus-built capsule on Artemis SLS rocket for NET Sept 2025 launch of Artemis 2, in light of Artemis 1 anomalies including 100+ areas of unexpected heat shield degradation during reentry, melting of separation bolts, and 4.5-hour communication outage; NASA plans to increase material between separation bolts before Artemis 3 redesign and upgrade DSN servers to prevent a reoccurrence of Goldstone outage, considering modification to less strenuous reentry trajectory

 
Credits: NASA OIG

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 3-6 May 2024

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First Lunar Far Side Sample Return Mission on Route to South Pole-Aitken Basin

China space agency CNSA guiding Chang’E-6 53-day mission, consisting of 4-module stack launched from Wenchang SLC (19 N°) on LM-5 rocket 3 May and Queqiao-2 relay satellite, also launched from Wenchang on LM-8 and currently in 200 x 16,000-km lunar orbit; Lander, ascender orbiter and return capsule to reach Moon orbit by 8 May, where they will remain for ~20 days before lander and ascender separate and descend to 490-km Apollo crater (itself within 2,400-km Aitken Basin) spending 48 hours drilling to a depth of 2-m and retrieving up to 2-kg of regolith for Earth (Inner Mongolia) return 25 June

 
Credits: CNSA

Friday / 3 May 2024

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Moonbase Analog Missions and Lunar Agriculture Simulations Being Conducted on Hawai’i Island

As the Artemis era of Moon exploration gains momentum, the youngest island in the Hawaiian archipelago (composed largely of cooled lava rock similar to lunar regolith) is contributing to the effort to return Humans to Luna, as reported in the May 2024 PISCES Newsletter: Space Exploration and Analog Simulation (HI-SEAS), which runs a 111-m2 geodesic dome located at 2,500 m elevation on the north slope of Mauna Loa, is forming crews for 6-day ($1,100) and 2-week mission analogs ($2,200); UH Hilo ‘Lunar Vulcans’ team conducing experiment under $1,500 NASA MINDS grant on growth of Hawaiian ‘canoe plants’ (those brought to the island by its original Polynesian inhabitants) within basalt mediums, watered via hydroponic capillary-action irrigation

 
Credits: HI-SEAS

Tuesday / 30 April 2024

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SpaceX Presents Plan to Use Starship as Lunar Base Construction Element

14 companies selected to develop conceptual framework for Moon commercialization under <US$1M DARPA 10-Year Lunar Architecture Capability Study (LunA-10) contracts deliver proposal briefs at Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium Spring meeting at JHU/APL, with final reports expected in June; SpaceX study envisions lunar base infrastructure established with 3 Starship landings: Utility Starship as power / communications hub, Rolling Stock Starship for rovers and construction machines, Habitation Starship for crew living quarters; Company projects Starship payload cost to lunar surface to drop from <$10,000/kg to ~$1,000/kg after 2030

 
Credits: SpaceX, NASA

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 26-29 Apr 2024

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Japan SLIM Moon Lander Defies Expectations by Operating on 4th Lunar Day

JAXA controllers maintaining delicate balance on operational period which began 23 April, timing command / transmission with day-long interval to avoid overheating amid temperatures exceeding 100°C; Reactivation following 3rd lunar night (with temps near -170°C) was earlier in lunar day than previous cycles, resulting in brightest landscape / shortest shadows imaged during mission thus far; Near-equatorial location (13.3160°S, 25.2510°E) of SLIM lander mitigates temperature flux in comparison to near-polar site of Intuitive Machines Odysseus, which functioned 1 lunar day; Both Odysseus and SLIM contain lithium-ion batteries, however SLIM utilizes bespoke pouch cells, whereas Odysseus has COTS cells

 
Credits: JAXA

Friday / 26 April 2024

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Intuitive Machines Well Positioned to Capitalize on Growing Cislunar Economy

Predicting US$250M revenue in 2024 and estimating $70M cash on hand, market analyst Stephen Tobin makes bullish case for Houston TX-based Intuitive Machines (LUNR) despite $53M negative equity as of Q4 2023 earnings report; Pointing to success of IM-1 and upcoming NASA CLPS-funded IM-2 and -3 missions NET Q4 2024 / 2025 as well as $30M Lunar Terrain Vehicle (with Boeing, Northrop Grumman), $719M Joint Polar Satellite System (with KBR), and $5M Fission Surface Power (with X-energy) contracts, Tobin suggests IM lunar services will be in demand by commercial interests and small national space agencies eager to utilize Earth-Moon / cislunar transport, operational and communication capabilities

 
Credits: Intuitive Machines

Thursday / 25 April 2024

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International Lunar Observatory Association Selected for Chang’E-7 Galaxy Imaging Payload

ILOA Hawai’i is honored to be selected as a Chang’E-7 payload to conduct Galaxy / Astronomy imaging from Shackleton Rim on the surface of the Moon about 2026; ILOA advances its Moon missions, most especially its flagship ILO-1 destined for Malapert Summit for observation and communication, in the spirit of peaceful and productive cooperation, equality and mutual benefit – in Space, on Earth, and perhaps most importantly, on the Moon; ILOA, and ILOA-affiliated Space Age Publishing Company, also advocate that independent associations, business enterprises, universities and non-profits (NGOs) be encouraged and accepted for participation in the USA-initiated Artemis Accords, as they are in the UN and the China-led ILRS International Lunar Research Station

 
Credits: ILOA, CNSA, DSEL, NASA

Tuesday / 23 April 2024

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NASA Reportedly Considering Major Change to Mission Design of US$93B Artemis Program

Artemis 3 could be modified to test Orion-Starship docking and habitability in LEO or perform Gateway rendezvous in lunar orbit rather than a full-fledged human surface landing as originally envisioned, per Ars Technica report citing anonymous sources; ‘NASA continues to work toward… Artemis III test flight to land astronauts near the lunar South Pole in September of 2026’ per official response; Hardware challenges include Orion heat shield modification, spacesuit and lander development; Operational complexity including first in-space cryogenic refueling likely also contributing to reassessment

 
Credits: NASA

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 19-22 Apr 2024

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Africa Partnership Increasingly Sought by Space Powers USA and China

Space diplomacy in Africa is on the rise, according to London School of Economics analyst, evidenced by strong representation from both USA / NASA and China PRC / CNSA at NewSpace Africa Conference 2024; Angola, Nigeria, Rwanda are signatories to USA-led Artemis Accords, while Egypt and South Africa are participants of International Lunar Research Station, led by China and Russia; 270+ space companies in Africa projected to generate $22.64B by 2026; Africa resources such as cobalt, copper, chromium are essential for building space / lunar technology including craft & communications devices, and untapped reserves of rare earth elements (REE) have potential to disrupt current market in which China produces 70% of global supply

 
Picutred: Tidiane Ouattara Head of the Science, Technology and Space Division at African Union
Credits: NASA, African Union
 

Friday / 19 April 2024

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Firefly Aerospace Set to Announce Blue Ghost Mission 1 Q3/Q4 Launch Window to Moon

Austin TX-based Firefly building on 2-m tall, 3.5-m diameter Blue Ghost lunar lander at newly-expanded 19,231 m2 work space under CLPS US$93.3M task order 19D; Blue Ghost M1 could be 4th Moon surface mission to ride on SpaceX Falcon 9 (Beresheet, Hakuto-R, IM-1) with 30-day launch window TBA in May; The 150-kg capacity lander is to carry 10 NASA payloads with 94-kg mass including regolith-repelling Electrodynamic Dust Shield (KSC), solar wind-Earth magnetic field investigation Lunar Environment Heliospheric X-ray Imager (Boston University), and Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (MSFC), first attempt to utilize GPS on Moon

Pictured (T-B) Firefly CEO Bill Weber, Advisory Board Member Jim Bridenstine, CFO Darren Ma
Credits: Firefly