Explorers Club Examines Perennial Question “Who Owns the Moon?” as Independent Missions Near
Lunar property rights are subject of Explorers Club panel on Youtube and Facebook 18 Oct at 1900 EDT; Pioneering commercial spaceflight participant (L-R) Richard Garriott leads venerable group, founded in 1904 to further exploration and scientific pursuits; Panel includes Aeronautical Engineer Moriba Jah of University of Texas at Austin and attorneys Kristin Larson (bringing Antarctica background to discussion), Charlies Norchi and David Concannon; Outer Space Treaty of 1967 and Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies of 1987 likely starting points
Extending 
First commercial orbital mission ‘Inspiration4’ on SpaceX Dragon capsule, sending humans furthest from Earth in 21st century, reaching 585km; Inspiration4 Commander Jared Isaacman reflects on “single most impactful moment” being Moonrise, urges space travelers push “little bit more and get out there [Moon]”; William Shatner, famous for Star Trek Captain Kirk portrayal, insists “everybody in the world needs to do this” after Blue Origin flight; Yusaku Maezawa and assistant Yozo Hirano launching to ISS 8 Dec via Soyuz; Maezawa organizing lunar orbit on Starship with 10-12 member crew NET 2023
Space-based technology and techniques with applicability to Earth climate and airspace management will be discussed 12 October at NASA Silicon Valley facility; Approach to coordination of wildfire fighting, Scalable Traffic Management for Emergency Response Operations (STEReO), and air traffic control Airspace Technology Demonstration-2 (ATD-2) to be presented; VP Kamala Harris, leader of agenda-setting National Space Council, may take opportunity to advance space priorities including Artemis first woman / person of color on Moon
Analysis of Moon rocks (~1,731g) collected within Oceanus Procellarum (43.06°N, 51.92°W), first returned to Earth in half century, show volcanism persisted longer than previously believed, until ~ 1.96 Gya ± 57 Ma – 1Gy older than Apollo samples indicate; Study conducted by Sensitive High Resolution Ion MicroProbe Center in conjunction with McDonnell Center for Space Sciences and Australia, UK, Sweden partners concludes “alternate explanations are required for the longevity of lunar magmatism”; co-author Brad Jolliff heralds international effort as “diplomacy by science”; Chang’e-6 to target MSP 2024
CEO Pavlo Tanasyuk indicates UK company Spacebit will plant Ukraine national flag on Moon, held aloft by Ukrainian-mined titanium pole along with radiation and thermal sensors; Comments given during National Day at Expo 2020 Dubai (a 182-day event hosted on 4.4 km2 grounds in UAE) were unclear on which lander will be booked for mission, with Astrobotic to deliver 1.4-kg Asagumo walking rover on Peregrine and unspecified Spacebit payload on Intuitive Machines IM-1; Both CLPS providers striving for Q1 2022 launch
UN-declared commemoration of Sputnik-1 (4 Oct 1964) and Outer Space Treaty (10 Oct 1967) commences next week with Women in Space theme, during a new era of space and lunar exploration with revitalized 21st Century goals to land the First Women and People of Color on the Moon; 8,000+ events across nearly 100 countries to occur, supported by organizations including Space Foundation, International Astronomical Union, SETI Institute, UNOOSA, Philippine Space Agency, European Space Education Resource Office, and Phoenix Space
Agency Report issued in response to HLS protest, newly released to 
Instant (15-sec) lunar landing pad concept in-Flight Alumina Spray Technique (FAST) may save Artemis program US$120M/landing according to Masten CEO Sean Mahoney; Plan calls for lander rocket plume fed with Al2O3 ceramic particles fusing with regolith to create 1-mm thick crust during landing, preventing widespread dust dispersion; Masten continues test program with next-gen Xogdor 0.75 x 8m resuable VTVL rocket; Programming languages developed by AdaCore to be utilized during $75.9M XL-1 Nov 2023 CLPS mission to MSP
Engineers at UArizona developing robot swarm mining techniques for lunar application under NASA Minority University Research and Education Project Space Technology Artemis Research (M-STAR) fund; Human and Explainable Autonomous Robotic System (HEART) is collaboration between Moe Momayez (L) of Mining & Geological and Jekan Thanga of Aerospace & Mechanical engineering departments aimed at melding excavation, ISRU, machine learning, economical 3D printing in support of robotic and human exploration; Efforts may be precursor to Von Neumann-style self-replication