Category Archives: Lunar Mapping

Friday / 12 December 2025

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NGLR-1 Elevates Lunar Laser Ranging for Artemis Precision Navigation

Next Generation Lunar Retroreflector-1 (NGLR-1) at Mare Crisium since 2 Mar 2025 via Firefly Blue Ghost Lander is target for Earth-based lasers, enables one-millimeter-precise Moon distance; expected to operate for 50+ years, is in 17x13x12cm housing; Grasse, Wettzell and Apache Point Observatories send laser beams for reflection; NGLR-1 precision achieves >17x improvement over retroreflectors placed by Apollo Astronauts, benefits Artemis Missions via enhanced navigation for safe landings, ISRU / habitat siting; NGLR-1 development at University of Maryland with physicist Doug Currie, who also led Apollo retroreflector creation; planned are retroreflector set-ups via Artemis 3 near Moon South Pole and CLPS to non-polar location, with 3 together providing unprecedented data

Image Credits: (L-R) Doug Currie at McDonald Observatory, Doug Currie today (John T Consoli), NGLR-1 by Currie, Buzz Aldrin with Apollo retroreflector courtesy Doug Currie

Friday / 3 October 2025

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Europe Moves Forward with International Collaboration on Moon Missions for Exploration, Monitoring, Mining

Airbus (Netherlands / France, with German / USA / China / Canada offices) supplies European Service Module for Artemis II Orion spacecraft, providing life-support, avionics, solar power, propulsion; ESA Argonaut lunar lander planned to launch NET 2031; Blue Origin (USA / Luxembourg) teams with Luxembourg government / ESRIC / GOMSpace to create Oasis-1 orbiter to map water ice / H3 / rare minierals, before sending Blue Alchemist mining rig; Space Applications Services (Belgium) designing 300kg rover; ispace Europe awaits ESA approval for MAGPIE 30kg rover to analyze subsurface geology, hydrogen forms, et al

Image Credits: Airbus, Blue Origin, NASA

Tuesday / 10 June 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 / 9 May 2023

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New Study Confirms Solid Core of Moon, Raises Questions on Disappearance of Magnetic Field

Utilizing Monte Carlo algorithmic modelling technique, drawing from Apollo seismic and GRAIL gravity field data, researchers at CNRS, Paris Observatory and other French institutions conclude Moon contains solid inner core ~516 km diameter with ~7,822 kg / m3, likely composed of Fe, representing ~15% relative to total size (by comparison, Earth’s inner core is ~20%); Findings concur with 2011 NASA study, and suggest mantle overturn activity as mechanism; Authors stress ramifications for ‘evolution of the Moon magnetic field’; Farside Seismic Suite to further investigate structure of Moon on Draper CLPS CP-12 mission lander NET 2025

Credits: Briaud, A., Ganino, C., Fienga, A. et al. The lunar solid inner core and the mantle overturn. Nature (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-05935-7; NASA
 

Friday / 3 March 2023

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Moon Time Standardization May Advance International Cislunar Communication, Navigation Capabilities

Interoperable ‘LunaNet’ communication / navigation protocol initiative will require agreement on common time on & around Moon similar to Coordinated Universal Time on Earth & Earth orbit, per ESA statement; Standard Moon time would enable NASA Lunar Communications Relay and Navigation Systems, ESA Moonlight and other nodes in Moon network to share spatial measurement as with Earth-based International Terrestrial Reference Frame used by GNSS; Nature and composition of governing organization and whether to fix Moon time to Earth time or create independent local selenocentric system TBD by lunar stakeholders

Pictured: ESA Moonlight Navigation Manager Javier Ventura-Traveset, ESA Navigation Engineer Pietro Giordano; Credits: ESA, NASA, Twitter

Friday / 13 Jan 2022

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ShadowCam Mapping of Perennially Dark Regions on Moon Begins with Shackleton Crater

2,040-m wide area of the interior of Shackleton Crater (89.9°S, 0.0°E) is first light for ShadowCam instrument on Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter Danuri; Based on Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera Narrow Angle Camera with 200x light-gathering ability (equivalent to an increase from ISO 100 to 12,800), ShadowCam is a product of San Diego-based company Malin Space Science Systems operated by Arizona State University for NASA; 1.7 m/pixel resolution images to aid in water ice prospecting, landing site analysis for Artemis 3 human landings NET 2025 and KARI indigenous lander mission NET 2032

Credits: KARI, NASA

Friday / 24 June 2022

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NASA Adds Lunar Flashlight & Trailblazer to IM-1/2 Manifests, Studying Moon Fission

6U, 14kg JPL cubesat Lunar Flashlight, formerly to launch with Artemis 1, now riding with CLPS mission Intuitive Machines-1 scheduled for 22 Dec 2022 launch; Flashlight to scout for water ice with 4 near-IR lasers while demonstrating ‘green’ propellant AF-M315E; 200kg Lunar Trailblazer moved from IMAP rideshare NET 2025 to IM-2, scheduled for mid-2023 launch; Trailblazer to utilize HVM3 spectrometer based on M3, with sufficient resolution to identify hydroxl vs molecular water, and Lunar Thermal Mapper; IX (IM + X-Energy) teamed with Maxar & Boeing to study lunar nuclear power, receiving $5M DOE award for ~1 year study along with Lockheed Martin, Westinghouse awardees

Credits: NASA, IM, JPL, Caltech

Wednesday / 1 June 2022

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Newly Named ‘Danuri’ Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter on Track for 2 Aug Launch to Moon

Selected from 62,719 submissions across South Korea by a 1000-person focus group, Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter, now Danuri (Moon Enjoy), set for launch on 2 Aug (19:37 EDT) to 100-km Moon orbit on SpaceX Falcon 9 via ballistic lunar transfer; 678-kg spacecraft is outfitted with 6 instruments – KARI-built Lunar Terrain Imager, Wide-Angle Polarimetric Camera, Magnetometer, Gamma-Ray Spectrometer, Disruption Tolerant Network Experiment Payload and NASA provided ShadowCam; NASA will also assist Danuri with ground station / comms / navigation support and 9-member KPLO Participating Scientist Program

Credits: KARI, NASA, SpaceX

Friday / 29 April 2022

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NASA Working to Leverage Latest Commercial LIDAR Tech for Human-Carried Lunar Mapping System

Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville AL, partnering with Torch Technologies under NASA Early Career Initiative to develop Kinematic Navigation and Cartography Knapsack (KNaCK) device for Moon topography and live-action recording; KNaCK being designed for human use during Artemis landings, taking form as 18-kg backpack utilizing 4D (height, length, width, velocity) frequency modulated continuous wave lidar (FMCW) sensors capable of cm-level precision, supplied by Aeva of Mountain View CA

Credits: NASA, Torch Technologies, Aeva

Tuesday / 22 March 2022

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LRO, Now in 13th Year of Operation, to Image Long March 3C Impact Site on Moon Far Side

First space debris to strike Moon, likely upper stage of LM-3C used to deliver Chang’e-5 T1 to lunar free return trajectory, will “use its cameras to attempt to identify the impact site”; LRO 20x165km eccentric polar selenocentric orbit is calibrated to reach perilune over the Moon South Pole (now pinpointed to “halfway between 10 and 11 o’clock” of an imaginary clock superimposed over Shackleton Crater), requiring “weeks to months” to achieve favorable conditions; Impact may be visible in Release 50C (15 June) or 51A (15 July)

 

Credits: NASA