Astrobotic Breaking New Ground as a CLPS Frontrunner in Moon Return
Astrobotic now employs 150+ from Pittsburgh HQ, from which Peregrine lander (100kg capacity) to be controlled as it descends onto and operates from Lacus Mortis in 2022; AON3D of Montreal to supply additive 3D printed components, funded by $11.5M investment round; CAES of Arlington providing avionics flight control processor; Griffin lander (500kg capacity) to deliver VIPER / Neutron Spectrometer System by 2024; PRISM-identified science missions 1A to Reiner Gamma, 1B to Schrödinger crater in 2024; 2A with 6° of MSP, 2B to Gruthuisen Domes in 2025 yet to be awarded to CLPS providers
Houston TX team behind Nova-C robotic lunar lander striving to achieve 26 Feb IM-1 mission to equatorial lunar nearside via SpaceX Falcon 9, partnering with IronNet on IT security, MDA providing landing sensors; IM-2 in Q4 2022 to set “
As supply chain disruptions of LOX and LN2 create launch delays amid medical crisis, limitations of chemical propulsion generally (availability, risk, environmental effects) have prompted industry and academic thought leaders to conceptualize space ‘elevator’ as infrastructure alternative, championed by International Space Elevator Consortium; Moon-based elevators take advantage of low gravity, allowing use of conventional materials: Lunar Space Elevator (LiftPort / Michael Laine) and Spaceline (Columbia University); Hybrid concept Sky Ladder (CALT / Wang Xiaojun) would utilize tethered spaceports attached to both Earth and Moon at 4% cost of rocket-based transit
Leaders at NASA and Roscomos intend to maintain partnership in LEO on ISS, with Administrator Nelson pledging ‘continued cooperation’ and Director General Rogozin characterizing statements to the contrary as ‘problem in interpretation’; While USA is leading Artemis Coalition to Moon and Russia has signed agreement with China to build ILRS, Nelson and Rogozin are to meet in Russia to discuss more broad participation; Lesson plans based on real-world Artemis challenges now available from NASA: 
International Artemis coalition is on track per NASA Administrator Nelson, echoing JFK “We can do hard things”, reiterating 2021 Artemis I timetable uncrewed SLS launch / Orion distant retrograde orbit; Artemis II launching NET September 2023 with first crewed mission beyond LEO since Apollo 17, with 4-member crew including Canadian Astronaut to fly 8,889 km past Moon during 8-day trip; Artemis III 4-member Orion crew + 2-member surface team including first woman on Moon surface; NASA 
With CLPS robotic surface missions delayed into Q1 2022, the 25-kg, 12U Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) is to kick off Artemis Moon program with Oct launch to 1,600 x 70,000km near rectilinear halo orbit via Rocketlab Electron, with goal of proving orbital stability ahead of Gateway by positioning relative to LRO; Artemis 1 launching NET Nov 26 to validate SLS / Orion while dispersing 13 cubesats from Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage in 4 batches following trans-lunar injection, allowing wide range of cislunar trajectories
Redwire Regolith Print (RRP) experiment utilizes Additive Manufacturing Facility (developed by subsidiary Made In Space) on ISS, fitted with custom printing heads / build plates brought by Cygnus NG-16 S.S. Ellison Onizuka, to fabricate 3 test slabs composed of regolith simulant; RRP seeks to validate construction method in low gravity, with goal of applying technique in-situ for long term, radiation-blocking Moon infrastructure; Test slabs to be returned to Earth for control comparison / durability testing; 1 Sep SPAC merger expected to raise US$170M
12U lunar pathfinder 
Proposals for excavation / conveyance of ice-containing regolith from Moon Permanently Shadowed Regions, supporting long-duration human activity receiving US$500k through NASA Centennial Challenge; Redwire Space (Jacksonville FL) receives first place / $125k for Lunar Regolith Excavator (L-Rex) and Lunar Transporter (L-Tran); Colorado School of Mines (Golden CO) second place / $75k for Lunar Ice Digging System (LIDS); Austere Engineering (Littleton CO) third place / $50k; PRIME-1 ice drill to be delivered on CLPS IM-2, Q4 2022; CNSA Chang’e-6 to retrieve MSP sample 2024
Fundamental and Applied Lunar Surface Research in Physical Sciences is focus of LSSW 10, with plenary talks including Artemis update from (L-R) Julie Robinson, NASA HEOMD Chief Scientist; A.V. Zakharov, Astronomer with Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences to present on Luna-25 instrument PmL, planned to conduct Lunar Near-Surface Dusty Plasma Investigations; S. Bandyopadhyay to expound on NIAC-awarded farside Lunar Crater Radio Telescope (LCRT) concept, C.J. Collins invited to speak on Instrumenting the Moon as a Spherical Gravitational Wave Detector