Category Archives: Lunar Landers

Friday / 13 Jun 2025

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Astrobotic Lunar Rover Ready to Go, Passes All Tests

CubeRover-1 ready 18 months early says project manager / lead mechanical engineer Andrea Davis of Astrobotic, Pittsburgh, who praises team, notes 16 years of development, US$20M+ cost for 4kg rover; 37 funders including Canadian Space Agency under Lunar Exploration Accelerator Program, and NASA Small Business Innovation Research award; rover has thermal-vacuum / electromagnetic survivability, software / communications compatibility; will fly on Griffin Mission One NET Nov with Astrolab ~500kg FLIP Rover, to land near Moon South Pole at Nobile Crater, 85°S

Credits: Astrobotic; Pictured CW: Griffin One lander, Andrea Davis with CubeRover, CubeRover team

Tuesday / 10 Jun 2025

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Open Lunar Foundation Seeks Shared Landing Info to Foster Mission Success

Open Lunar Foundation (OLF) seeks Moon mission success via open / non-siloed data sharing, Moon Positioning, Navigation, Timing (PNT) services, transparent coordination — for all entrepreneurs and agencies seeking to foster peaceful enduring presence for humans on the Moon that benefits all life; with 20+ infrastructure projects, 30+ research fellowships, 50+ experts, 70+ papers, 1,500+ members, OLF runs Lunar Registry database, called a Wikipedia of Moon missions, participates in UNCOPUOS, compiles lunar achievements by country: China, USA, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Europe

Credits: Open Lunar Foundation, ispace; Pictured L-R: Founder Jessy Kate Schingler, Co-founder Chelsea Robinson, Science Communications Lead Jatan Mehta, Director Carlos Alvarado Quesada 48th President of Costa Rica, PNT Project Contributor Peng Hu

Tuesday / 3 Jun 2025

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ispace Moon Lander About 100km and 2 Days From Surface

ispace Resilience Lunar Lander completes Success 8 of 10 milestones 28 May, entering 100-km altitude circular orbit with 10-min engine burn, longest to date on this privately funded Mission 2, leaves elliptical orbit 70×5,800 km reached with 9-min burn 7 May; descent to Mare Frigoris 56°N 1°E begins from 100 km, higher than 30 km of Chandrayaan 3 and 20 km of Blue Ghost; global livestream in English and Japanese begins 1 hr before expected Moon landing 19:24 UTC 5 Jun / 04:24 JST 6 Jun

Credits: ispace

Friday / 23 May 2025

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Astrobotic Announces Power Technology Breakthrough for Surviving Lunar Night

 Wireless charging is now commercially available for space applications, furthering Astrobotic goal “to make space accessible to the world”; 125W of power to rovers or astronaut-held tools will transfer from lander or Vertical Solar Array Technology platform, whether covered in 4cm of regolith dust, at -180°C, vibrating, or in an electromagnetic field with virtually no atmosphere; Astrobotic led WiBotic, Bosch, University of Washington and NASA Glenn in development, for ~54 months, under US$5.7M NASA Tipping Point contract; 400W system is in the works

Credits: Astrobotic

Friday / 16 May 2025

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ispace Lander in Lunar Orbit, 20 Days Ahead of Anticipated Moon Landing

 ispace 340-kg lunar craft Resilience in stable Moon orbit due to ~9-minute main thruster burn ahead of final maneuvers before anticipated 5 Jun (UTC) touchdown near Mare Frigoris with 5-kg rover Tenacious; rover will shovel regolith, analyze and send data; ispace aiming to fulfill US$5,000 NASA Lunar Regolith Transfer Contract; Resilience also carries water electrolyzer, food production experiment with algae, Moonhouse by artist Mikael Genberg, deep space radiation probe, UNESCO memory disk, commemorative plaque based on Charter of the Universal Century fictional document from Japanese science fiction franchise Gundam

Credits: ispace-Inc

Friday / 9 May 2025

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India Moon Science, Future Missions Highlighted at IAF GLEX, New Delhi

Vyomanaut in training, Ajit Krishnan returns from IAF GLEX ongoing in New Delhi where India Moon and Solar System Complete mission science is being discussed; Chandrayaan-4 sample return lander to Statio Shiv Shakti NET 2027; Gaganyaan human Moon mission 8.2 t orbital module will carry 3 atop HLVM3, 1st flight Q1 2027; Chandrayaan-3 was 1st lander near South Pole region, making India 4th country with soft landing, rover also successful; Chandrayaan-2 orbiter continues to analyze Moon atmosphere, surface and subsurface; Chandrayaan-1 orbiter confirmed surface water

Credits: ISRO, NASA, PTI

Tuesday / 6 May 2025

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Astrobotic Technology Aims for Moon Landing by Dec 2025

Astrobotic Griffin-1 lunar lander Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) technologies critical for soft Moon landing show themselves reliably successful in Mojave CA test; rocks / small craters down to 15 cm detected and avoided by camera and LiDAR, in Hazard Detection and Avoidance and Terrain Relative Navigation systems; scan area ~1,000,000 sq m (>2,200 football fields) allows safest specific site and landing accuracy within 50 m radius; landing expected in Nobile region near Moon South Pole with Astrolab FLIP rover by end of 2025

Credits: Astrobotic Technology, NASA

Tuesday / 29 April 2025

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Firefly Aerospace Shares Knowledge Gained from Blue Ghost Moon Lander

Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost US$101M Mission 1 operated 2-16 Mar on Moon at Mare Crisium with 10 CLPS payloads; 7 automated engine burns navigated constantly changing center of gravity for landing; completed 100% of mission objectives, operated 14.4 days, 5 hours into lunar night; lunar noon at 121°C hotter than expected due to reflection off nearby crater wall, changing X-band antenna angle allowed shade to re-establish radio operation; radiators and more batteries could allow future landers to operate components through lunar night

Credits: Firefly Aerospace

Tuesday / 15 April 2025

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New ispace-U.S. CEO Elizabeth Kryst Signs 2 Memorandums of Understanding

40th Space Symposium was backdrop for 2 announced collaborations; ispace-U.S. will work with Zeno Power, Tyler Bernstein Co-Founder / CEO, to develop technologies enabling survival of lunar night; demo mission planned NET 2027 with ispace APEX 1.0 next-generation lander (using Resilience-learned knowledge) and Zeno Power radioisotope power system (RPS) providing continuous, reliable heat / electricity via nuclear that solar panels cannot, during the 14-day lunar night at –173°C; ispace will work with Redwire (NYSE:RDW), President Mike Gold, 1 of 14 prime holders of CLPS IDIQ (indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity) contracts, worth US$2.6B, to pursue future CLPS contracts

Credit: ispace 

Tuesday / 18 March 2025

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ispace Has On-Track Mission, Receives Increased Award from Draper

ispace Hakuto-R Mission 2 aims to accomplish mission milestone 6 of 10 when it completes deep-space orbital maneuvers 24 April, affirming survivability there, ahead of 6 Jun landing at Mare Frigoris ~60°N; ispace business mission is to construct a sustainable Earth-Moon ecosystem implementing space resources; Hakuto-R is a multinational commercial lunar exploration program, includes payload development for lunar orbiting and landing; non-profit R&D company Draper releases US$7.7M additional funding to ispace-U.S. from its US$73M NASA CLPS award, for design of APEX 1.0 lander going NET 2026 H2 to Schrödinger Basin, ~75°S on Moon far side

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Credits: ispace, Draper