Category Archives: International Cooperation

Thanksgiving Holiday Edition
Thurs-Mon / 23-27 Nov 2023

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A Robust International Moon Landing Schedule in First Half 2024

JAXA Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) lander, Astrobotic Peregrine and Intuitive Machines Nova-C Odysseus are slated to land on near side of Moon NET Jan 2024: SLIM is currently in low-energy transfer targeting 100-m landing site near Shioli crater (13.3°S) mid-Jan, Peregrine awaiting ULA Vulcan Centaur launch from KSC NET 24 Dec with late Jan landing near Gruithuisen Domes (36.56°N), Nova-C working toward late Nov shipping from TX to FL for NET 12 Jan launch on SpaceX F9 to 5-7 day direct transfer for mid-Jan landing near Malapert-A (80.3°S); CNSA Chang’E-6 to launch on Long March 5 NET May 2024 to Apollo crater within far side SPA Basin (43.0°S)

Picutred: SLIM Project Manager Shinichiro Sakai, Astrobotic CEO John Thornton, IM CEO Stephen Altemus, CLEP Designer Sun Jiadong; Credits: JAXA, Astrobotic, Intuitive Machines, CNSA, Linkedin

Friday / 3 Nov 2023

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Qosmosys Joins Commercial Lunar Lander Market Backed by US$100M Funding Round

Headquartered in Singapore with operations in Toulouse and Houston, lunar / space startup Qosmosys is led by Francois Dubrulle with threefold focus on robotics, transportation, and science enabling space exploration to Moon and beyond, a “shared responsibility of all nations and individuals” as articulated in detailed manifesto featuring wisdom of Carl Sagan, Arthur Clarke, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky; 8-m tall / 4.2-m diameter ZeusX flagship spacecraft being developed through Airbus and New Frontier Aerospace collaborations and will consist of service module, lander, rover – featuring payload capacity of 500kg to lunar orbit, 800kg to surface; Inaugural launch NET 2027

Credits: Qosmosys, Twitter / @FrancoisDubrull

Friday / 29 Sep 2023

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Japan National and Commercial Moon Landers in Transit and Under Construction

2.7-m long JAXA ‘Moon Sniper’ Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) on low-energy transit expected to reach lunar orbit NET Dec, with final 100-m2 target landing area near Shioli crater (13.3°S, 25.2°E) between Jan – Feb 2024, with imager / data link tested from 100,000-km with Earth photo and LEV rover to be activated for checks imminently; ispace working towards Mission 2 launch NET 2024 with flight model (based on Series 1) under construction at Tsukuba Space Center while Mission 3 with APEX 1.0 lander being developed with Draper now set for NET 2026; LUPEX collaboration with JAXA providing launcher / rover and ISRO providing lander to launch NET 2025

Pictured: ISRO / JAXA LUPEX team in India; Credits: JAXA, ispace

Tuesday / 19 Sep 2023

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NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services Issues New Award to Firefly Aerospace for Astronomy from the Moon Follow-on

The second Firefly lunar mission launching NET 2026 to receive additional US$18M for frequency calibration of LuSEE-Night payload, with $112M already allotted for CLPS CS-3 task order for Moon far side delivery; LuSEE-Night is a collaboration between Space Science Laboratory and DOE (Brookhaven / Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories), led by PI Stuart Bale of UC Berkeley, which aims to place a 4-monopole rotating antenna array to probe cosmological ‘Dark Ages’ signals between 0.1-50 MHz; Instrument calibration to utilize Elytra Dark transfer stage / lunar orbital platform, which will deliver ESA Lunar Pathfinder relay satellite being built by SSTL

Credits: Firefly, UC Berkeley

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

Tuesday / 29 Aug 2023

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BRICS Nations Consider Establishment of Space Exploration Consortium

5-member BRICS economic bloc consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (with Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and UAE set to formally join 1 Jan 2024) may cooperate on space development per comments given by India PM and Foreign Secretary in the wake of the historic landing of Chandrayaan-3 at Shiv Shakti, ~20° from the lunar south pole; Existing BRICS Remote Sensing Satellite Constellation could serve as ‘base layer’ from which consortium may grow per Secretary Kwatra; Collaboration between China-led ILRS and Artemis Accords signatory India may accelerate USA Moon action

Pictured: India Prime Minister Narendra Modi (T), India Foreign Secretary Shri Vinay Kwatra (B); Credits: ILOA, Twitter / @ani_digital, India Ministry of External Affairs

Friday / 18 Aug 2023

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International Lunar Year Being Fostered by US State Department as DARPA Advances 10-Year Lunar Architecture

US Department of State, led by Secretary Antony Blinken and Acting Deputy Secretary Victoria Nuland, is hosting high level discussions on the launch of an International Lunar Year (ILY), modeled on International Geophysical Year (1957-58), International Space Year (1992), International Polar Year (2007-08); Called for in US National Cislunar Science & Technology Strategy, an ILY would coordinate international developments in Moon studies, specifically geophysical networks, heliophysics and far-side radio astronomy; 1 July 2027 — 31 Dec 2028 suggested by Bobby Braun of JHUAPL; DARPA offering ≤US$1M for commercial lunar service plans under LunA-10 program, winners to be announced at LSIC 10-11 Oct

Tuesday / 15 Aug 2023

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India and Russia Reaching Final Stretch Before Landings in South Polar Region

ISRO Chandrayaan-3 now in 150 x 177 km orbit around Moon with next orbital reduction / circularization maneuver planned to retrofire on 16 Aug at ~08:30 IST ahead of expected 23 Aug 12:17 UTC landing at South Polar Region (69.368°S, 32.348°E) roughly 120 km west of Roscosmos Luna-25 prime landing site at 69.545°S, 43.544°E; Luna-25 operating nominally with stable comms and power following 13 Aug instrument / telemetry check and Earth / Moon imaging, activation of ADRON-LR cosmic radiation detector and final orbit correction maneuver 14 Aug; LOI to occur 16 Aug, while landing may happen on 21 Aug

Friday / 4 Aug 2023

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China Now Accepting International Requests for Chang’E-5 Lunar Samples

International governments, space agencies and organizations are invited to borrow portions of the 1,731 g of Moon regolith collected by CE-5 lander within Oceanus Procellarum (43.1°N, 51.8°W) and returned to Earth 17 Dec 2020; 1-year loans will be granted for both scientific research use and for public outreach / education, with application review occurring every 6 months managed by CNSA Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center (LESEC); CE-6 launching NET May 2024 to return first far side samples from South Pole–Aitken basin area between 150–158° W, 41–45° S

Friday / 14 July 2023

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NGO Participation in Artemis Accords — as with International Lunar Research Station — is Essential to Build Lunar Society

Artemis Accords purpose and scope ‘to apply to civil space activities conducted by the civil space agencies of each signatory’ may be amended to broaden lunar community inclusion in democratic fashion, expanding to non-governmental, independent, enterprising entities in addition to ‘government-to-government agreements, agency-to-agency arrangements’; 6,000+ NGOs consult with UN Economic and Social Council under Article 71, which may provide model for Moon; nanoSPACE AG of Lyss, Switzerland is ILRS signatory, International Lunar Observatory Association of Kamuela, Hawai’i seeking to sign Artemis Accords if possible before signing MoU with DSEL for ILRS on 20 July, International Moon Day

Credits: UN, CNSA, NASA