Category Archives: NewSpace

Friday / 5 May 2023

Posted on by

Lunar Payload and Climate Science Ideas Sought for NASA Entrepreneurs Challenge 2023

NASA Entrepreneurs Challenge offering US$1M in prize money for innovative concepts in two areas: commercially viable lunar payloads and climate science achievable with small instruments and / or analysis of existing available data; Contest running on HeroX crowdsourcing platform, currently 179 innovators on 22 teams competing for round 1, in which 20 $16k prizes to be awarded 10 August; 8 organizational round 2 winners to receive $85k and access to pitch opportunity at Defense TechConnect Innovation Summit and Expo 28-30 Nov in Washington DC; SMD Strategy 4.1 on diversity and inclusion to be emphasized in contest

Credits: NASA
 

Friday / 14 April 2023

Posted on by

ispace Set to Land HAKUTO-R, Aiming to Operate First Commercial Lander on Moon as Stock Surges

HAKUTO-R M1 lander is currently in 100 x 2,300 km elliptical lunar orbit as mission controllers prepare to execute maneuvers, circularizing orbit at 100 km ahead of 25 April at 15:40 UTC landing sequence initiation / touchdown in Atlas Crater (47.5°N, 44.4°E) 1 hour later at 16:40 UTC; Alternative landing sites within Lacus Somniorum, Sinus Iridium and Oceanus Procellarum may be targeted 26 April, 1 May and 3 May; Meanwhile on Earth ispace shares on Tokyo Stock Exchange make strong debut going from ¥254 (US$1.92) to ¥1,201 ($9.06)

Pictured: (T-B) ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada, ispace CFO Jumpei Nozaki; Credits: ispace

Tuesday / 11 April 2023

Posted on by

ULA Centaur V Anomaly May Further Delay Peregrine Launch, Deployment of Iris Rover

Explosion during pressurization of Vulcan Centaur upper stage at ULA testing facility within MSFC captured by Blue Origin camera monitoring adjacent test stand 29 March (as reported by Eric Berger of Ars Technica) could push certification flight scheduled to launch of Astrobotic Peregrine lunar lander and Kuipersat-1/2 from NET 4 May, pending investigation into incident; Peregrine to carry Iris lunar rover, built by CMU students, set to be the first robotic USA Moon rover, and 25 other payloads (11 NASA / 15 independent)

Credits: ULA, Twitter / @SciGuySpace, Astrobotic

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 24-27 March 2023

Posted on by

NASA Office of Small Business Programs Recognizes Artemis Exploration Ground Systems Contributions

163 companies out of 800+ small-to-medium sized enterprises who worked to make Artemis 1 a reality and continue to support the ongoing effort to return humans to the Moon named in OSBP publication A Case for Small Business: Artemis I: Exploration Ground Systems; While EGS is based at KSC FL, businesses in 43 states assist operations; Report highlights Avatar Technologies (MD), Cimarron Software (TX), Craig Technologies (FL), Insight Global (CA), ProXopS (TX), Summit Technologies (FL) and Axiom Space (TX, recipient of US$228.5M Artemis spacesuit contract)

Credits: NASA / OSBP

Friday / 10 March 2023

Posted on by

Farside Radio Astronomy to be Pioneered by LuSEE-Night CLPS Mission NET Late 2025

Landing near northern rim of Nassau crater on lunar farside (23.81°S, 176.83°E) on TBD commercial lander, Lunar Surface Electromagnetics Experiment-Night (LuSEE-Night) led by PI Stuart Bale (UC-Berkeley), co-investigator Jack Burns (CU Boulder) and DOE / Brookhaven National Lab is slated to be the first radio astronomy precursor to test low frequency detection limits (<50 MHz) in the pursuit of cosmological dark ages (380,000 years post-Big Bang) observation via 21-cm neutral hydrogen emissions; LuSEE-Night is to operate throughout lunar night / day cycle for up to 2 years thanks to 40-kg battery system

Pictured: PI Stuart Bale; Paul O’Connor, Anže Slosar, Sven Herrmann of Brookhaven Lab; Credits: DOE, NASA, UC-Berkeley, LinkedIn

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 24-27 Feb 2023

Posted on by

International Moon Missions Operating in Lunar Orbit as Wave of Landers Approach / Prep for Launch

 NASA / Advanced Space CAPSTONE orbiter prepares for spacecraft-to-spacecraft positioning test with LRO; KPLO Danuri imaging heritage areas – first robotic Moon landing (Luna-9) site in Oceanus Procellarum, first lunar rover (Lunokhod 1) landing site in Mare Imbrium – and Earth phases; ispace progressing on ballistic lunar transfer, now moving at ~520 m/s, will soon begin control burns to decrease speed on approach, landing expected NET late April; JAXA SLIM launching NET April; Astrobotic Peregrine to launch on inaugural Vulcan Centaur flight NET 4 May; Intuitive Machines launching Nova-C NET late June

Pictured: ispace Spaceflight Operations Engineer Sam Richards; Credits: KARI, ispace, LinkedIn

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 17-20 Feb 2023

Posted on by

Companies Race to Develop and Deploy ISRU Techniques to Extract Building Materials and Oxygen on Moon

Blue Origin is latest entrant in effort to establish manufacturing processes for lunar buildout with Blue Alchemist molten regolith electrolysis extraction of Fe, Al, Si / PV cell & wire printing; Lunar Resources of Houston TX plans FarView Observatory construction via molten oxide electrolysis and is conducting 9-month NIAC feasibility study of MSP pipeline to deliver oxygen gas byproduct; ESA working to develop molten salt electrolysis with Metalysis of UK; Helios of Israel working with Eta Space of Florida on similar system; CO School of Mines to gather lunar prospectors 6-9 June at Lunar Resources Roundtable in Golden

Credits: Blue Origin, NASA, Lunar Resources, Helios, Metalysis

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 10-13 Feb 2023

Posted on by

Independent / Commercial and National Moon Missions Working to Join Chang’E-3 & 4 Operating on Lunar Surface

ispace striving to conduct 1st commercial activity on Moon with landing of Hakuto-R, collection of regolith under US$5,000 NASA contract; ispace Lead Spaceflight Operations Engineer Angel Milagro updates on M1 progress (now 1,200,000 km from Earth), on track for April landing; JAXA SLIM launching NET April to Shioli crater; Ars Technica forecasts Astrobotic launch to Gruithuisen Domes NET May; ISRO Chandrayaan-3 targeting plain between Manzinus N and U craters NET June; Intuitive Machines launching to MSP on SpaceX F9 NET late June; Roscosmos Luna-25 may launch to Boguslawsky crater NET July

Credits: ispace, JAXA, IM, Astrobotic, LinkedIn

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 3-6 Feb 2023

Posted on by

International Wave of Robotic Moon Missions Prepare for Launch, Landing, Lunar Surface Exploration and Science

12 spacecraft currently operate in cislunar space, 2 landers (CE-3, 4) and 1 rover (Yutu-2) function on the lunar surface; 6 lander missions prepare to join: ispace HAKUTO-R now ~1,300,000 km from Earth, due to arrive NET April; JAXA SLIM with LEV-2 demonstrator payload may follow NET April; Astrobotic with Peregrine lander awaits ULA Vulcan Centaur readiness for engine and launch vehicle integration, launch NET Q1 – PM1 now targeting silica-rich Gruithuisen Domes (Mons Gruithuisen Gamma / Mons Gruithuisen Delta) at ~36°N x 40°W; Intuitive Machines Nova-C launching to 3-6 day direct transit in H1; Chandrayaan-3 NET June; Roscosmos Luna-25 NET July

Credits: NASA, ispace, Astrobotic

Tuesday / 17 Jan 2023

Posted on by

3 Commercial Moon Landers: ispace Hakuto-R, Astrobotic Peregrine, Intuitive Machines Nova-C

First wave of independent Moon missions (following SpaceIL Beresheet attempt 2019) targeting lunar surface are underway / preparing for launch including ispace Mission 1 with Hakuto-R nearing furthest point from Earth (1,400,000 km) on ~5 month low-energy trajectory NET 20 Jan; Astrobotic Peregrine Mission 1 to make 7-58 day transit (3-33 cruise + 4-25 lunar orbit, dependent on launch date) NET Q1 on ULA Vulcan Centaur rocket, currently en route from Decatur AL via Mississippi barge to CCSFS; Intuitive Machines IM-1 to launch on SpaceX F9 from KSC also NET Q1 on ~6-day direct transfer

Credits: ispace, IM, Astrobotic, NASA