NASA warns lawsuit over Human Landing System award threatens to derail human Moon landings
Agency Report issued in response to HLS protest, newly released to The Verge via FOIA request, show NASA warns cancellation of the Artemis program may result from litigious proceedings, stating “once-in-a-generation momentum” risks “goal of returning the United States to the Moon”; US$146M NextSTEP N award to be shared by Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin Northrop Grumman, SpaceX and Dynetics to support human missions after Artemis 3; Lunar Exploration Transportation Services contracts or self-financing are routes forward for lunar lander companies wishing to participate on Artemis team
Instant (15-sec) lunar landing pad concept in-Flight Alumina Spray Technique (FAST) may save Artemis program US$120M/landing according to Masten CEO Sean Mahoney; Plan calls for lander rocket plume fed with Al2O3 ceramic particles fusing with regolith to create 1-mm thick crust during landing, preventing widespread dust dispersion; Masten continues test program with next-gen Xogdor 0.75 x 8m resuable VTVL rocket; Programming languages developed by AdaCore to be utilized during $75.9M XL-1 Nov 2023 CLPS mission to MSP
Engineers at UArizona developing robot swarm mining techniques for lunar application under NASA Minority University Research and Education Project Space Technology Artemis Research (M-STAR) fund; Human and Explainable Autonomous Robotic System (HEART) is collaboration between Moe Momayez (L) of Mining & Geological and Jekan Thanga of Aerospace & Mechanical engineering departments aimed at melding excavation, ISRU, machine learning, economical 3D printing in support of robotic and human exploration; Efforts may be precursor to Von Neumann-style self-replication
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
Conducted by Institute Of Competition Sciences, NASA SSERVI and UCF Exolith Laboratory with support from SC, FL, MN, ID, VA, NM Space Grant Consortiums, Plant the Moon and Plant Mars Challenges looking forward to the technologies and practices needed to sustain human life off Earth; Lunar regolith simulant being shipped to students nationwide, mentored by Science Advisory Board including (L-R) Nanoracks Chief Innovation Officer Michael Lewis, Scientist Chris McKay, Exolith Lab Chief Scientist Zoe Landsman; Opening Symposium 22 Sep
Known to contain molecular water and other useful volatiles per LRO & Chandrayaan / Moon Mineralogy Mapper data, lunar South Pole region exploration is focus of CLPS mission sequence with Intuitive Machines to deliver Prime-1 consisting of Trident 1m drill / MSolo off-the-shelf mass spectrometer to area in Q4 2022 under US$47M contract, Astrobotic to deliver VIPER autonomous rover with same instrument suite late 2023 under $199.5M contract; Landing site selection may have profound implications for human lunar base buildout, with Shackleton, Cabeus, Nobile Craters, Leibniz Plateau, Malapert Mountain being strong contenders
Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) to provide communications spacecraft operating on S, X and UHF frequency bands from elliptical lunar orbit, ESA is first major customer under US$23.5M / 5 year agreement formalized at Royal Society in London as launch-for-service exchange with NASA being pursued; David Parker of ESA says “robust & fast communications… will be available to all” in signing release 
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
Astrobotic now employs 150+ from Pittsburgh HQ, from which Peregrine lander (100kg capacity) to be controlled as it descends onto and operates from Lacus Mortis in 2022; AON3D of Montreal to supply additive 3D printed components, funded by $11.5M investment round; CAES of Arlington providing avionics flight control processor; Griffin lander (500kg capacity) to deliver VIPER / Neutron Spectrometer System by 2024; PRISM-identified science missions 1A to Reiner Gamma, 1B to Schrödinger crater in 2024; 2A with 6° of MSP, 2B to Gruthuisen Domes in 2025 yet to be awarded to CLPS providers
Houston TX team behind Nova-C robotic lunar lander striving to achieve 26 Feb IM-1 mission to equatorial lunar nearside via SpaceX Falcon 9, partnering with IronNet on IT security, MDA providing landing sensors; IM-2 in Q4 2022 to set “