Category Archives: Water on Moon

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 28 Feb – 2 Mar 2020

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Commercial Lunar Services Providers Enlisted For New Polar Rover

Commercial Lunar Payload Services 19C Proposals For Smaller Lander Mission Due First Week Of March; CLPS Providers Astrobotic And Intuitive Machines Building Landers For July 2021; NASA Seeking Bids From 14 CLPS Providers To Land New Rover At Moon Pole 2023; 350-Kg Volatiles Investigation Polar Exploration Rover Will Roam Several Kilometers For Up To 100 Days, Seek Water Ice With 4 Instruments Including One-Meter TRIDENT Drill; 19D Solicitation Expected To Follow, For Larger Cargo Landers Potentially To Moon Equator

Credits: NASA, Ceres Robotics

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 / 13 Sep 2019

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Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter Resized And Rescheduled For 2022

Republic Of Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO) Rescheduled To Launch July 2022; Size Of Spacecraft Increased From 500 Kg To 678 Kg To Allow More Science; US$166M Spacecraft Will Carry 4 Korea Payloads And Fly 9 Months Of 1-Year Mission In Elliptical Orbit To Maximize Science Return; Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) Will Use SpaceX Falcon 9 Booster; KPLO Will Carry NASA-Built ShadowCam Instrument To Search For Water In Permanently-Shadowed Lunar Craters

Credits: CNSA, NASA, KARI

Tuesday / 6 Aug 2019

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New Analysis Of Data Obtained From NASA Spacecraft Implies Presence Of Thick Ice On Mercury And Moon

Research Conducted At UCLA And Published In The Journal Nature Geoscience Compares Topographical Data Gathered By Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) And Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry And Ranging (Messenger) Finds Simple Crater Depths Decrease By 10% Proximate To North And South Pole On Mercury / South Pole On Moon; Lead Study Author Lior Rubanenko (L) Says That Existence Of Thick, Buried Ice Deposits Can Be Inferred, LRO Scientist Noah Petro (R) Suggests “Potential Reservoir Of Frozen Water On The Moon May Be Sufficiently Massive To Sustain Long-Term Lunar Exploration”

Credits: NASA, UCLA, JHU APL

Wednesday / 29 May 2019

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Hawai’i And Germany Scientists Developing Laser Systems For Water And 3D Printing On Moon 

University of Hawaii At Manoa Research Finds A Way To Liberate Water From Lunar Regolith; UH Scientists Use Laser To ‘Zap’ Moon Dust, Making Water Available For Human Use; Germany Laser Zentrum Hanover And Institute Of Space Systems Develop MOONRISE Laser To Melt Regolith For 3D Printing, Will Send 3-kg System To Moon With PTScientists Lander And Rover During 2021 In Tandem With International Lunar Missions

Credits: Laser Zentrum Hanover

Tuesday / 12 Mar 2019

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Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Finds Water Moving Across Lunar Surface, Cooperates With Chang’e-4 Mission 

 

NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, In Orbit Since June 2009, Makes Data Release 37B; LRO Lyman Alpha Mapping Project Observes Water Molecules Moving Around Lunar Dayside; LAMP Uses Ultraviolet Light From Stars To Look Into Permanently Shadowed Craters Seeking Water Ice; LRO Is Positioned To Aid Future International Robotic And Crewed Missions; In Cooperation With CNSA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) Images Chang’e-4 Lander And Yutu-2 Rover On Surface

Credits: NASA

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 12-15 Oct 2018

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Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Patrols Ahead Of Future Missions

NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Returns Data And Images 9 Years After Entering Moon Orbit; Diviner Instrument Aboard LRO Along With NASA Moon Mineralogy Mapper On Chandrayaan-2 Find Widespread Water On Moon; CRaTER Cosmic Ray Telescope Characterizes Lunar Radiation Environment For Future Missions; LRO Finds And Photographs Crash Site Of Europe SMART-1 Probe Deliberately Impacted Into Moon; Produces 5-Minute Virtual Tour Of Moon In 4K; LRO Engaged To Photograph Israel SpaceIL Landing In 2019

Credits: NASA, ESA, NASA/GSFC

Wednesday / 10 Oct 2018

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Enterprises Working On Moon Race Competition, Lunar Regolith, Lunar Library Mission

“Moon Race” Sponsored By Airbus, Blue Origin And Partners Challenges Private Enterprise With Four Goals: Extract Water From Lunar Regolith, Manufacture Useful Objects From Lunar Resources, Use Lunar Regolith Plus Water To Grow Plants, And Generate Energy On Moon; Startup Company “Off Planet Research” Producing Simulated Lunar Regolith, Offering Samples To Backers Of Indiegogo Project; Lunar Library Project Sponsored By Microsoft Will Use Synthetic DNA To Archive Human Knowledge; Public To Contribute Images Via MemoriesInDNA Project; Library To Land With Astrobotic-Built Peregrine Lander In 2020 

Credits: Moon Race, Off Planet Research

Wednesday / 3 Oct 2018

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India Launching Chandrayaan-2 To Lunar South Pole January 2019

India Space Research Organisation Aiming For 3 January – 16 February 2019 Launch Of Second Lunar Mission; Lander Will Separate From Orbiter 100 Km From Surface; First Lander To Explore South Polar Region Will Carry Six-Wheeled Rover; Landing Site Will Be More Than 70° South Latitude; Rover Will Carry Drill To Obtain Samples, Instruments To Analyze Composition Of Lunar Regolith, Tunable Diode Laser, And Laser-Induced Ion Mass Spectrometer To Search For Lunar Water.   

Credits: ISRO

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 31 Aug – 3 Sep 2018

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Roscosmos, ESA Collaborate On Luna 27 Payload For Moon South Pole Resource Investigation

ESA Developing In-Situ Drill / Sample-Analysis Payload ‘PROSPECT’ To Reach Moon South Pole-Aitken Basin 2022-23 Aboard Roscosmos Luna 27 Lander; Design Phase Scheduled Early 2019; ProSEED Drill To Probe Lunar Ice Where Subsurface Temperatures Could Reach -200° C; ProSPA Onboard Laboratory To Heat Ice Sample To 1,000° C For Volatile Extraction; ESA May Participate On Luna 25 Lander Aiming For Boguslavsky Crater Near South Pole NET 2019-20

Credits: Roscosmos, ESA, NASA, L. David