Category Archives: NASA

Tuesday / 4 November 2025

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Duffy or Isaacman? Who is Better for Urgent Moon Goals?

NASA Interim Administrator Sean Duffy announces Human Landing System contract reopened, proposes NASA become part of US Department of Transportation, discusses with NASA-contracted space industry companies desire to maintain status quo, deals with Air Traffic Controller crisis from government shutdown; entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, builder of 2 multibillion-dollar companies, financier / astronaut for 2 space flights, tweets need for private capital to fund space for pharmaceutical formulations / asteroid mining / orbital computing, sponsors “Athena plan” given to Duffy / leaked to reporters that gives equal kudos to SpaceX / Blue Origin, wants NASA to again achieve “the near-impossible” / lead the world in human space exploration / ignite the space economy / be a force multiplier for science

Image Credits: Duffy (L) – NASA / Bill Ingalls; NASA; Isaacman (R) – John Kraus

Friday / 31 October 2025

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Blue Origin First Moon Lander Launching this Year?

Blue Origin (“Blue”) stacks 3 sections of 8.3 meter Blue Moon Mark 1 Pathfinder lander and installs NASA SCALPSS payload ahead of barging from Port Canaveral factory to NASA Johnson; Blue Director Jacqueline Cortese posits launch to Moon in “a few weeks” — attempting to fly before 2026; booster to be reused for that flight expected to send off EscaPADE to Mars on 8 Nov; Mark 1 to next deliver VIPER to South Pole late 2027 under US$190M NASA contract; 15.3 meter Mark 2 lander will demo uncrewed Moon landing before taking Artemis 5 Astronauts NET 2029 per US$3.4B NASA contract

Image Credits: Blue Origin

Friday / 24 October 2025

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ispace Innovation / Cooperation Offers Success Model for Lunar Advancement

ispace, inc. (Japan), developing Moon landers / rovers in HAKUTO-R program, planned to collect lunar regolith for US$5,000 and transfer ownership to NASA — evoking lunar property rights questions; subsidiary ispace-Europe signs 6 Oct US$22M Payload Services Agreement (PSA) with Magna Petra Corp. to deliver (via subsidiary ispace-USA APEX 1.0 lander / micro-rover) NASA MSOLO mass spectrometer for lunar Helium-3 prospecting under Magna Petra-NASA 5 May Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA); ispace signs 5 Sep MoU with Digantara (India) for cislunar awareness and 23 Oct with OrbitAID (India) for refueling, indirectly supporting ISRO-JAXA LUPEX / Chandrayaan-5 mission (JAXA rocket / rover, ISRO lander) launching NET 2028

Image Credits: ispace

Friday / 10 October 2025

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ispace Partners Internationally to Further Lunar Enterprise

ispace announces new business deals including JAXA ~US$6.5B Strategic Space Fund selects ispace to develop lunar-water-location orbiter in ~$42M project led by Institute of Science Tokyo, and ispace chooses 2 companies for lunar water projects: Takasago Thermal Engineering receives ~$19.5M of ispace shares to collaborate in finding lunar surface H2O, Kurita Water Industries invests ~$13M in ispace as they jointly develop lunar resources / infrastructure; payload service agreements in process: for Series 3 lander NET 2027 with Magna Petra for ~$22M to take NASA MSOLO, and Unmanned Exploration Laboratory (Korea) for 2 rovers; with Taiwan Space Agency for ~$8M to deliver NET 2028 magnetometer / UV telescope

Image Credits: ispace

Tuesday / 23 September 2025

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Blue Origin Completes Critical Design Review (CDR) for Blue Alchemist Moon Manufacturing System

Blue Alchemist is system to turn regolith into solar cells, power transmission wire, 99.999% pure silicon, metals and oxygen; with this system, Blue Origin melts regolith analog to 1,600°C, removes elements with electrolysis, et al, boils off / collects oxygen, extracts iron / aluminum / silicon, creates glass; system is cleaner than most current manufacturing processes; after CDR, 2026 demonstration of this autonomous system now scheduled for simulated lunar environment; supported by NASA US$35M grant, hopes to reduce lunar landing costs 60%, reduce fuel cell / battery masses by 70%

Image Credit: Blue Origin

Friday / 19 September 2025

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Paving Moon Surface Necessary for Counteracting Regolith Dust

Michigan Technical University (PI, associate professor Paul van Susante) and SpaceFactory.ai (PI, founder David Malott) working together to create Moon-paving machines to polymerize regolith top layer, preventing future issues of dust-encrusted spacesuits on Moon-walking Astronauts; paving substance must endure 300°C temperature swings, -173 to +127; NASA Small Business Technology Transfer awarded US$150,000 in 2023, and US$850,000 this year funds R&D into 2027; current work is automating excavation / grading and preparing viscoelastic, asphalt-like material; road-bed samples are cryocooled and heated to lunar temps, rover wheel traverses sample paving 900x

Image Credits: NASA / SPC / ILOA, NASA / Gene Cernan of Harrison Schmitt, MTU, SpaceFactory.ai

Friday / 12 September 2025

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Namesake Carruthers Instrument Honors Physicist, Inventor, Astronomer

Launching September alongside IMAP spacecraft is Carruthers Geocorona Observatory for imaging UV light in Earth upper atmosphere, named for George Robert Carruthers PhD, b. 1939; at US Naval Research Laboratory, Carruthers invented gold-plated Far Ultraviolet Camera / Spectrograph, which was 1st astronomical instrument on Moon; placed there 21 Apr 1972 by Astronaut John Young during Apollo 16, Young observed Earth and 550+ stars, nebulae, galaxies; Carruthers built 1st telescope age 10, awarded patent age 30 for instrument to image radiation, providing 1st proof of interstellar molecular hydrogen; spearheaded development of instruments for Moon, Skylab, ARGOS, 4 Shuttle flights; ILOA working for long-term lunar observatory

Image Credits: NASA / Charlie Duke / John Young, NRL, Center top L-R: Duke, Rocco Petrone, Carruthers, Young

Friday / 29 August 2025

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LEAG and LSIC Continue Shaping Lunar Exploration with Strategic Expertise

2025 Annual Meeting of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group is scheduled for 28–30 October at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU APL); LEAG is led by Benjamin Greenhagen and guides NASA lunar exploration by analyzing scientific, technical and commercial priorities for Artemis missions; LEAG (est. 2004) unites academia, industry, and government to define mission objectives and foster sustainable lunar presence; Within Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium (LSIC), led by Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, LEAG Commercial Advisory Board chair, Stephen Indyk drives synergy aligning LSIC 3,500+ collaborators to advance technologies like ISRU and surface power

Image Credits: LEAG, NASA, LSIC

Tuesday / 19 August 2025

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Artemis II On-Track for Lunar Flyby NET April 2026

Artemis II Mission 4 astronauts practicing night launch scenario, Christina Koch and Victor Glover (pictured), Jeremy Hansen, Reid Wiseman, walking to craft, as well as emergency evacuation from pad; NASA Marshall in Huntsville “Rocket City” shipping to Florida the Orion stage adapter, 1.5 meters by 5.5 meters tall, built there, to be stacked on SLS rocket to connect to Orion craft; adapter will carry 4, and up to 17, CubeSats; 25 finalists from 10 countries are in the running for Moon Mascot plush toy zero-gravity indicator to be created by NASA, including one of Artemis herself

Image Credits:  NASA, NASA/Freelancer/collectSPACE.com, Derek Lacey/Axios

Tuesday / 12 August 2025

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Hi-Res Photos from Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter Continue to Identify and Reveal

Chandrayaan-2 orbiter, marking 6 years in lunar orbit 20 Aug, has 1/4-meter resolution of Moon surface; citizen scientist Chandra Tungathurthi reveals photos from Chandrayaan-2 of Intuitive Machines IM-2 Athena lander at Mons Mouton ~85°S and 6 Mar skid marks leading to resting site; NASA LRO first photographed Athena 7 Mar, has 1/2-meter resolution; 2-year observation of Chandrayaan-3 landing success at Statio Shiv Shakti ~69°S to be marked 23 Aug; mission team recipient of 2024 IAF World Space Award 

Image Credits: ISRO / C Tungathurthi, Intuitive Machines