Friday / 30 August 2024

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Firefly Aerospace Aiming for NET December Launch, Blue Ghost Testing at JPL

Firefly may become 3rd American company attempting lunar landing; Blue Ghost lander now being tested at JPL, designed for future annual Moon payload services; first mission “Ghost Riders in the Sky” to launch NET Dec from Florida on Falcon 9, deliver 10 payloads per CLPS Task Order 19D  and others to Mare Crisium after ~45 days in transit, operating one lunar / 14 Earth days and 5 lunar night hours; an “end-to-end space transportation company”, Firefly has new CEO Jason Kim, 700 employees, 4,650 sq meter facility, 230 sq meter clean room 307 km from Dallas TX 

Credits: Firefly Aerospace, NASA

August 2024 Update

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Moon Back SoonLunar Enterprise Daily Will Resume Publication Asap; Thank You For Your Understanding And Support. – Editor

Credit: NASA

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 17-20 May 2024

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In Peace for All?

As USA, China, and India advance toward declared human Moon landings, cooperative models of interaction based on existing international agreements regarding Antarctica and the High Seas may inform lunar activities; Antarctic Treaty (1959) proscribes aggression under Article 1, ‘Antarctica shall be used for peaceful purposes only’ as does Convention on the High Seas (1958), Article 88, ‘The high seas shall be reserved for peaceful purposes’, sentiments which should serve as conceptual guidance for Moon agreements under consideration by UNOOSA / UN COPUOS, Artemis Accords, ILRS, NASA OTPS, ILOA, MVA and other stakeholders

 
Credits: NASA, UN

Friday / 17 May 2024

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USA Space Thought Leaders Express Urgency of Moon Return and Maintaining Human Presence in Space

Invoking concepts such as rule of law, democracy, and human rights, former NASA director / Astronaut (T-B) Charles Bolden, George Washington University professor Scott Pace and retired USSF officer William Liquori call for ‘generational shift’ toward commercial human outposts in cis-lunar and near-Earth space as ‘critical lunar geography’ such as the lunar south pole and far side regions increase in international strategic, economic, scientific interest and activity; Citing 24 years of continuous human occupation of ISS, co-authors stress crewed spaceflight is ‘ultimate venue’ for establishing ethical and legal norms with Apollo ‘Peace for All’ heritage

 
Credits: NASA

Tuesday / 14 May 2024

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ispace Projects Significant Demand of Lunar Services, ISRO Targeting Shiv Shakti with Chandrayaan-4

Japan first commercial lunar lander company ispace projecting 138% increase in year-on-year net sales, growing to JPY¥4,033M (US$25.8M) in FY2024 possibly buoyed by international orders for lunar landers and robots, especially from USA, which may mitigate expected JPY¥12,465M ($79.8M) loss, with ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada (R) characterizing business environment as ‘quite positive‘ in light of USA-Japan Artemis agreement; Nilesh Desai, director of Space Applications Centre (SAC) in Ahmedabad, declares Shiv Shakti point (Statio Shiv Shakti by IAU designation, 69.373°S, 32.319°E) will be destination of Chandrayaan-4, building on successful Chandrayaan-3 mission, possibly returning sample closer to MSP than any previous NET 2028

 
Credits: ispace, ISRO, SAC

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 10-13 May 2024

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Artemis Advancing with Launch Pad Infrastructure Build-out, Moonwalking and Geology Training, Space Diplomacy

NASA Exploration Ground Systems with Bechtel National contractor working to complete electrical and plumbing of permanent mount structure at KSC for Mobile Launcher 2, where Artemis missions to return humans to Moon will launch; Astronauts (L-R) Kate Rubins and Andre Douglas to practice Moon surface EVA simulation 13-20 May at San Francisco Volcanic Field near Flagstaff AZ; NASA engineers / flight directors conducting exercises in northern Arizona under direction of Cindy Evans (JSC), preparatory to Artemis geology missions; NASA Administrator Bill Nelson meeting with Italy, Vatican and Saudi Arabia space leaders

 
Credits: NASA

Friday / 10 May 2024

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NASA Soliciting Thoughts on Landing Site Value and Non-Interference in Lunar Operations

Expanding on Artemis Accords Section 11 (Deconfliction of Space Activities), which evokes legal concepts such as ‘due regard’ and ‘safety zones’ in consideration of activity on the Moon with potential to interfere in the activities of another signatory, NASA Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy (OTPS) seeking guidance on landing site valuation (with special emphasis on MSP), how such value may degrade with contamination and mitigation measures; Secure World Foundation, Moon Village Association, For All Moonkind, Open Lunar Foundation among stakeholder groups working to formulate lunar policy; Questionnaire due 7 June 2024

 
Pictured: OTPS Associate Administrator Charity Weeden; Credits: CNSA, NASA

Tuesday / 7 May 2024

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NASA OIG Identifies Needed Orion Improvements Ahead of Crewed Artemis 2 Mission

Report NASA’s Readiness for the Artemis 2 Crewed Mission to Lunar Orbit recommends significant review of Orion spacecraft systems prior to integration and stacking of the Lockheed-Martin / Airbus-built capsule on Artemis SLS rocket for NET Sept 2025 launch of Artemis 2, in light of Artemis 1 anomalies including 100+ areas of unexpected heat shield degradation during reentry, melting of separation bolts, and 4.5-hour communication outage; NASA plans to increase material between separation bolts before Artemis 3 redesign and upgrade DSN servers to prevent a reoccurrence of Goldstone outage, considering modification to less strenuous reentry trajectory

 
Credits: NASA OIG

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 3-6 May 2024

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First Lunar Far Side Sample Return Mission on Route to South Pole-Aitken Basin

China space agency CNSA guiding Chang’E-6 53-day mission, consisting of 4-module stack launched from Wenchang SLC (19 N°) on LM-5 rocket 3 May and Queqiao-2 relay satellite, also launched from Wenchang on LM-8 and currently in 200 x 16,000-km lunar orbit; Lander, ascender orbiter and return capsule to reach Moon orbit by 8 May, where they will remain for ~20 days before lander and ascender separate and descend to 490-km Apollo crater (itself within 2,400-km Aitken Basin) spending 48 hours drilling to a depth of 2-m and retrieving up to 2-kg of regolith for Earth (Inner Mongolia) return 25 June

 
Credits: CNSA

Friday / 3 May 2024

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Moonbase Analog Missions and Lunar Agriculture Simulations Being Conducted on Hawai’i Island

As the Artemis era of Moon exploration gains momentum, the youngest island in the Hawaiian archipelago (composed largely of cooled lava rock similar to lunar regolith) is contributing to the effort to return Humans to Luna, as reported in the May 2024 PISCES Newsletter: Space Exploration and Analog Simulation (HI-SEAS), which runs a 111-m2 geodesic dome located at 2,500 m elevation on the north slope of Mauna Loa, is forming crews for 6-day ($1,100) and 2-week mission analogs ($2,200); UH Hilo ‘Lunar Vulcans’ team conducing experiment under $1,500 NASA MINDS grant on growth of Hawaiian ‘canoe plants’ (those brought to the island by its original Polynesian inhabitants) within basalt mediums, watered via hydroponic capillary-action irrigation

 
Credits: HI-SEAS