Category Archives: Lunar Orbiters

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 2-5 Oct 2020

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JAXA Astronaut Soichi Noguchi May Join SpaceX Lunar ‘Universal Art Project’

Veteran Spacefarer (STS-114, ISS Expedition 22) Soichi Noguchi Is Interested In Accompanying Fashion Entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa And 6-8 Artists On 6-Day Lunar Circumlunar Trajectory Orbit Mission #DearMoon In 2023, Telling Business Insider “We’ve Had A Lot Of Discussions” And “I’m Really Looking Forward To Talking To Him After This Mission” In Reference To Upcoming Crew-1 In Which SpaceX Dragon Resilience Craft Is To Transport Noguchi Along With Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover And Shannon Walker To ISS On Halloween (31 Oct); Mark Kelly, Ringo Starr And Elon Musk Have Also Expressed Interest

 

Credits: JAXA, SpaceX

Friday / 11 Sep 2020

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New NASA Patented Route To Moon For Small Craft Will Reduce Costs, Flight Time To 2.5 Months

Orbital Maneuvers Patent (#10696423) Published 30 June Grants Intellectual Property Rights To NASA For Innovative Lunar Trajectory Which Could Allow Smaller Craft, Such As Dark Ages Polarimeter Pathfinder (Dapper), To Reach Moon Faster With Less Fuel, And Avoid Van Allen Belts Radiation; Led By CU Boulder PI Jack Burns, US$150M Dapper Mission Contained In 80-cm Bradford Explorer Bus, Could Be First To Take New Path In 2024; Mission Will Record Low Frequency Radio Waves Emitted During “Dark Ages” Earliest Epochs Of Universe, Perhaps Give Insight Into Dark Matter 

Credits: NASA, JPL-Caltech, Jack Burns, CU Boulder, Business Insider, Jeff Steck

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 10-13 Apr 2020

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3rd ‘Breakfast On The Moon’ Live Stream Features Jim And Marilyn Lovell

Astronaut James Lovell To Speak Via Zoom At National Space Society Hosted Virtual Gathering; Lovell Will Likely Speak On Experience Of 1st Human Moon Orbit Mission Apollo 8, Commanding The Dramatic Apollo 13 Mission, And Near Term Prospects Of Human Return To Moon / Artemis 2024-25; Janet Ivey, Fred Becker, Anita Gale, William Johnston Also To Give Talks; Online ‘Celebration’ Recognizes 1st Human Spaceflight Of Yuri Gagarin, Space Shuttle Columbia, Hubble Anniversaries; ‘Breakfast’ Can Be Joined At Sacramento L5 Society YouTube Channel 11 April, 0700-0900 PDT


Credits: CAST, NASA, NSS, US VA, SPC, ILOA

 

Friday / 20 March 2020

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Global Positioning System Satellites To Aid Artemis Lunar Missions 

NASA Intends To Use Signals From 24+ Operational GPS Satellites In 20,000-Km Earth Orbit With Receivers On Moon; GSFC Developing Lunar GPS Receiver Based Upon NavCube System Being Tested On ISS; JPL Scientists Kar-Ming Cheung (L) And Charles Lee (R) Estimate That GPS Allows Lunar Navigation With 200-300 Meter Accuracy; Navigation Could Be Improved With Small Relay Satellite In High Lunar Orbit

Credits: NASA, JPL

Tuesday / 17 March 2020

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NASA Artemis Human Lunar Landing In 2024 To Bypass Gateway 

New NASA Associate Administrator For Human Exploration And Operations Mission Directorate Doug Loverro Commits To Artemis Bypassing Lunar Orbital Gateway; Human Landing Goal In 2024 Will Be Critical Path; Canada, Japan And European Space Agencies, Maxar Technologies And Northrop Grumman Contributing To Gateway; NASA Selects Space Weather Instrument Suite And ESA-Built Radiation Instrument Package As First Science Experiments On Future Gateway Space Station; Lunar Orbit Seen As Important For Long-Term Sustainable Presence On Moon Surface

Credits: NASA

Friday / 13 March 2020

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University Teams Building SmallSat Demonstrations For Artemis 

NASA Small Spacecraft Technology Program Selects Nine University Teams For Small (<180 Kg) Satellite Demonstrations Supporting Artemis; Universities Will Receive Up To US$200K For Lunar Projects; Arizona State University Tempe Will Test Deployable Optical Receiver Aperture; University Of Colorado Boulder Will Build SmallSat Lunar Communications System In Collaboration With JPL; University Of California Irvine And University Of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Will Both Test Electrospray Thrusters; Future SmallSats Could Provide Communications And Navigation For The Moon

Credits: NASA

Friday / 28 February 2020

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CubeSats To Orbit Moon In 2021 To Prepare For Artemis 

NASA Small Spacecraft Technology Program Funds CubeSats For Moon; Lunar Flashlight Will Fly As Secondary Payload On Artemis-1; With Principal Investigator Barbara Cohen, Flashlight Will Examine Permanently Shadowed Regions Near South Pole For Water Ice Deposits; Rocket Lab Has Contract To Launch Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations And Navigation Experiment In 2021; 25-Kg CAPSTONE, Built By Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, Will Reach Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit As Precursor To Lunar Gateway

Credits: NASA, Rocket Lab

Friday / 7 February 2020

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SSTL Lunar Pathfinder Data Relay To Provide Communication With South Polar Region By 2022

UK Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) Building Lunar Pathfinder Data-Relay; 280-Kg Spacecraft Is Intended To Provide Affordable Communications With S-Band And UHF Links To Missions On Surface, And X-Band Link To Earth; Will Enable Lunar Polar And Farside Missions With An Alternative To Earth-Based Deep Space Networks; Planned For Launch In 2022, Lunar Pathfinder Will Operate In Elliptical Orbit For Long-Duration Line-Of-Sight Visibility Of South Polar Region And Aitken Basin; Sue Horne Of UK Space Agency Talks Of Communicating From Lunar Orbit To Surface

Credits: NASA, SSTL

Friday / 31 January 2020

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Nanoracks And Xplore Announce Plan To ‘Commercialize Deep Space’ Starting With Lunar Orbit In 2021

Provider Of ISS Research, Cubesat Launch And Microgravity Services Since 2009, Nanoracks Of Houston To Partner With Xplore, A Seattle-Based Enterprise Founded By Lisa Rich of Hemisphere Ventures, Developer Of A Spacecraft Suitable For Conveyance To Moon; ‘Xcraft’ Is To Offer Payload Capacity Of 30 – 70 Kg Within 50U Volume, Parameters Which May Be Sufficient For Small Landers In Addition To Orbital Cubesat Instrumentation; Nanoracks Will Contribute Customer Services Including Payload Integration For Moon ‘Xpeditions’ Scheduled For Late 2021; Xplore Has Also Reached Agreements With Celestis Memorial Spaceflight And Arch Mission Foundation

Credits: NASA, Xplore, Nanoracks

Friday / 22 November 2019

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LRO Surpasses 10 Years In Orbit With Images Of Longjiang-2 Site And Giordano Bruno Crater

NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, Originally Designed For One Year Of Operations, Exceeds 10 Years Of Mission Returning 1.1 Petabytes Of Data; Orbiter Cameras Image Impact Site Of China Longjiang-2, Part Of Chang’e-4 Mission, But Are Unable To Locate India Chandrayaan-2; LRO Returns High-Resolution Photos Of Cliffs Within Giordano Bruno Crater; With An Estimated 7 Years Of Service Life Left, LRO Is Expected To Play Part In Reconnaissance For Artemis Human Lunar Landings

Credits: NASA