Japan Enterprises to Offer First Lunar Lander and Rover Insurance for Moon Missions
Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance will indemnify HAKUTO-R lander mission sequence beginning NET Q4 2022 for ispace under newly signed MoU, with The Nikkei reporting an expected US$80M coverage level will cost lander companies $8M; Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance offering financial liability protection for mobile payloads that may suffer damage in-transit / on lunar surface with first customer Dymon of Tokyo, whose 498-g lunar rover YAOKI (touted as “world’s smallest lunar rover”) is slated for late 2022 mission with Astrobotic
2 USA commercial teams, 1 composed of Northrop Grumman, AVL, Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost, Michelin (with Moon workers Harrison Schmitt and Charles Duke serving in advisory roles) and partnership between Lockheed Martin, General Motors compete for contract to build modern Lunar Terrain Vehicle; JAXA works with Nissan and Toyota on electric and hydrogen powered concepts; Researchers at Keck Institute for Space Studies (Caltech) promote utilization of off-the-shelf components from production electric automobiles to minimize R&D cost of bespoke vehicles
ISRO intends to launch Chandryaan-3 via GSLV Mk 3 NET August, soft-landing near originally planned Chandryaan-2 site; Area is within southern lunar highlands ~160km from Boguslawsky crater, preferred landing site of Roscosmos Luna-25 aiming for 23 July launch, and ~350km from South Pole-Aitken basin, an area currently being investigated by CNSA Yutu-2 rover from Chang’e-4 mission with sample return planned for Chang’e-6 NET 2024; Spectral analysis from Chandrayaan-1 orbiter indicates site is rich in iron (4.2%), magnesium (5.4%), calcium (10%) and titanium (0.3%)
Seeking to overcome range constraints of single-landing craft and speed limitations of ground rovers, international science engineering teams utilizing computer modelling promote alternative rocket ‘hopper’ concept first used on Lunar surface during Surveyor 6 (1967) and Pogo-stick style locomotion; NASA CLPS lunar lander provider Intuitive Machines is to carry Micro-Nova, capable of traversing 2.4km with 900 gram payload capacity, on IM-2 mission near Shackleton Rim; Micro-Nova may allow investigation of otherwise inaccessible PSRs, thought to contain water ice
NASA to construct its first autonomous Moon rover, 
CEO Pavlo Tanasyuk indicates UK company Spacebit will plant Ukraine national flag on Moon, held aloft by Ukrainian-mined titanium pole along with radiation and thermal sensors; Comments given during National Day at Expo 2020 Dubai (a 182-day event hosted on 4.4 km2 grounds in UAE) were unclear on which lander will be booked for mission, with Astrobotic to deliver 1.4-kg Asagumo walking rover on Peregrine and unspecified Spacebit payload on Intuitive Machines IM-1; Both CLPS providers striving for Q1 2022 launch
93km2 area between Nobile (85.2°S, 53.5°E) and Malapert craters 137km from Moon South Pole to be site of Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) mission, selection based on criteria including sunlight availability, Earth visibility / communication, likelihood of finding water and navigable terrain, winnowed from 15 considered sites and 4 finalists; 100-day nominal mission expected to traverse 16-24km while utilizing TRIDENT drill and 3 sensors, launch Q4 2023 on SpaceX Falcon 9 / Astrobotic Griffin under US$199.5M CLPS contract
5 USA companies engaged in Artemis-related engineering bolstered by $2.5-5M SBIR/STTR Sequential Phase 2 awards for maturation of technologies to aid sustainable exploration of Moon; Troxel Aerospace (Gainesville FL) investigating technique allowing use of Off-The-Shelf avionics in radioactive environment; Motiv Space (Pasadena CA) working on electric actuators to drive rovers/landers/robots on Moon and Mars; Alameda Applied Sciences (Oakland CA) building deep space smallsat propulsion; Advanced Cooling Technologies (Lancaster PA) and Ashwin-Ushas (Marlboro NJ) developing vehicle thermal regulation for exploration of PSRs
NASA Moon Rover VIPER Meets Risk, Cost And Schedule Constraints Of ‘Key Decision Point C’ Internal Assessment, Clearing Way For Operational Planning And Construction; 1.5×1.5×2.5m, 430kg Vehicle To Be Built At JSC With Instrument Input From KSC / Honeybee Robotics, Managed From Ames Research Center, Is To Land Late 2023 Via Astrobotic Griffin In MSP Region For ~100 Day Mission During Which 1-Meter TRIDENT Drill And 3 Spectrometers Will Be Controlled With Little Lag From Earth Through X Band / Deep Space Network As Volatile-Seeking Mission Traverses 20km