August 31st, 2024
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In an experiment carried out by a large radar facility, Earth’s Moon was “beam bathed” to appraise the equipment’s stability and performance abilities. The result: high-resolution radar imaging of the lunar surface, made possible by the Tracking and Imaging Radar (TIRA), a central and important part of research at Fraunhofer FHR, and one of […]
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A U.S. Moon lander provider has a new contract under its belt, awarded monies via the NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative program. Intuitive Machines of Houston, Texas is receiving $116.9 million to deliver six NASA payloads to the lunar south pole in 2027. “This marks the 10th CLPS delivery NASA has awarded, and […]
Successful Blue Origin Blastoff Today: New Shepard crewed suborbital mission NS-26, lifting off from Launch Site One in West Texas on August 29. Blue Origin Completed its 26th Mission to space with six crew onboard: Nicolina Elrick, Rob Ferl, Eugene Grin, Dr. Eiman Jahangir, Karsen Kitchen, and Ephraim Rabin. Including today’s crew, the suborbital New […]
LITTLETON, Colorado – That touted “space is hard” dictate may need a meaning makeover given the use of “softgoods” to fashion inflatable airlocks and habitats for future lunar and Mars exploration needs. Here at the Waterton Canyon facility of Lockheed Martin, testing of inflatable structures that offer advantages over all-metal counterparts is underway. A pathfinder […]
NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER, was cancelled on July 17 by the space agency. But in a wait-a-minute and ready-to-roll mode the rover continues to inch its way forward. Commercial/international partners may be selected to fly the moon machine to the lunar south pole. In addition, Congressional lawmakers are […]
The team for Japan’s Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) has issued a notice of the end of spacecraft operations The SLIM project attempted to communicate again with the long-lived Moon lander on August 22nd and 23rd, but received no response from the probe. “As a result, it was determined that there was no prospect […]
About those Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP)! The U.S. Defense Department has announced the selection of Jon Kosloski, to be appointed as the director of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, longhand for AARO. As the AARO director, Kosloski will head DoD’s efforts, in coordination with the Intelligence Community, “to minimize technical and intelligence surprise by synchronizing […]
Out the door – from Cedar Park, Texas and headed for the Moon. That’s the Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost Moon lander – as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. The lunar lander has arrived at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for environmental testing before the lander ships to Cape Canaveral for a […]
The weather on Mars is not a welcoming factor for future expeditions. Yes, it’s a harsh, chilly, foreboding planet. The place is no paradise. Standing on Mars, astronauts will be more exposed to space radiation than stay-at-home Earthlings. Why so? The Red planet lacks a protective magnetosphere […]
Book Review: Still As Bright: An Illuminating History of the Moon, from Antiquity to Tomorrow by Christopher Cokinos; Pegasus Books; 2024; Hardcover, 448 pages; $32.00. From the moment you open the cover of this volume, the reader is literally moonbound. Author Cokinos has written a suburb book about our nightlight in the sky, Earth’s […]
