NASA-Funded Study Reduces Cost of Human Missions to Moon and Mars by Factor of Ten, National Space Society and Space Frontier Foundation [With video of news conference] “Note from the authors: This study by NexGen Space LLC (NexGen) was partly funded by a grant from NASA’s Emerging Space office in the Office of the Chief Technologist. The conclusions in this report are solely those of NexGen and the study team […]
Astrobotic Wins Google Lunar X Prize Milestones and Competition Deadline Extended to End of 2016, SpaceRef Business “Today the Google Lunar X Prize announced that the deadline for the competition deadline had been extended again, this time to the end of 2016. Also announced today were two milestone prizes being won by Astrobotic.”
Video Archive: Looking Back at Apollo 11 45 Years Ago, SpaceRef “NASA is marking the 45th anniversary of the first moon landing this month. Here in a series of videos from the archives are some of the events of that fateful mission.” Marc’s note: The post now includes a restored Apollo 11 EVA just released today.
Earth Before Earth Day “Long before man journeyed to the moon and looked back at the tiny, fragile planet that houses humanity, remote orbiters were sending back pictures of home. Sent to scope out potential landing sites on the Moon, the series of five Lunar Orbiters also sent back the earliest views of Earth from another celestial body. This image, taken in 1966 by Lunar Orbiter 1, is among the […]
NASA Completes LADEE Mission with Planned Impact on Moon’s Surface “Ground controllers at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., have confirmed that NASA’s Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft impacted the surface of the moon, as planned, between 9:30 and 10:22 p.m. PDT Thursday, April 17. LADEE lacked fuel to maintain a long-term lunar orbit or continue science operations and was intentionally sent into the lunar […]
The ‘Other’ Lunar Orbiter 1 Earthrise Image, Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project “A newly enhanced image of Earth taken from lunar orbit 47 years ago has been released. The image, taken by Lunar Orbiter 1 in 1966, is the latest in a series of images released by the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project (LOIRP). This image is actually one of a pair of images taken of Earth by Lunar Orbiter […]
Dr. Andy Aldrin Joins Moon Express as its President, SpaceRef Business “Moon Express, the ambitious Silicon Valley commercial venture aiming to be one of the first Moon resource companies, announced last night at the annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference that Dr. Andy Aldrin was joining the company as its new President. Dr. Aldrin, the son of Buzz Aldrin, is leaving United Launch Alliance, the joint venture of mega-companies Boeing […]
Rebooting the Google Lunar XPRIZE with an Increased Prize Purse and Finalists for the Milestone Prizes, SpaceRef Business “Getting a spacecraft to land on the moon is both expensive and difficult. To date only three countries, Russia, the U.S. and most recently, China, have done so, and this through government programs. It’s with this daunting task in mind that teams of students and professionals globally began the challenge in 2007 […]
NASA Extends LADEE Moon Exploring Satellite Mission “NASA’s Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer, or LADEE, observatory has been approved for a 28-day mission extension. The spacecraft is now expected to impact the lunar surface on or around April 21, 2014, depending on the final trajectory. The extension provides an opportunity for the satellite to gather an additional full lunar cycle worth of very low-altitude data to help scientists unravel […]
Another Lunar Orbiter Earthrise Retrieved and Enhanced, Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project “The other day, as we were going through tapes from Lunar Orbiter IV we came across a picture of the Earth and the Moon – one that was not instantly familiar to us. This image is not included in the LPI Lunar Orbiter IV image gallery but is listed in another, more obscure document at LPI. So we […]
Clementine – The Mission, Twenty Years Later, Paul Spudis “In the twenty years following the end of the Apollo program, the lunar science community tried to interest NASA in sending a robotic orbiter to the Moon to map its shape, composition and other physical properties. Such a mission would not only document the processes and history of the Moon, but would also serve as an operational template for the exploration […]
China’s Chang’e-3 Heads For The Moon (with video), SpaceRef “China’s Chang’e-3 lunar rover Yutu (“Jade rabbit”) left Earth today aboard a Long March IIIB rocket today. Liftoff occurred at 12:30 pm EST from Xichang launch facility in in China’s Sichuan province. Chang’e-3 will take approximately four days to reach the Moon and will enter orbit on or around 6 December. A week or so later Change’e-3’s large landing stage will […]
Listening to the Deep Space Music Network, Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project (LOIRP) “Dennis Wingo: A funny story from today. I was running a Lunar Orbiter tape today and all of a sudden I started hearing music coming from the audio speaker. It was really nice, staring out with a piano solo and then a couple of other pieces then a full on concert by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana […]
Keith’s note: According to someone at NASA: “LADEE just completed a successful firing of its main engine in the second lunar orbit insertion (LOI-2) burn! We are now in a 4 hour elliptic orbit, with the perilune at our commissioning altitude. This follows the LOI-1 burn on Oct 6 that first got us into lunar orbit. The accuracy of the LOI-1 burn was such that we did not need to […]
Misplaced High Resolution Lunar Orbiter Imagery Found After 46 Years “High resolution imagery from the Lunar Orbiter program, forgotten for nearly 50 years, has been retrieved from original data tapes. The five Lunar Orbiter missions, flown between 1966 and 1967, were rather heavily documented. This extensive documentation has helped us at the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project (LOIRP) to locate images on the original analog data tapes and retrieve them […]
Keith’s note: According to someone at NASA: “Early this morning (October 6), we fired LADEE’s main engine in a braking maneuver known as the Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI) burn. This slowed the spacecraft’s velocity enough for it to be captured by the Moon’s gravity. This critical burn went flawlessly and LADEE is now in lunar orbit! Two more main engine burns, on October 9 and 12 will adjust LADEE’s trajectory, […]
Dramatic Changes to Google Lunar X Prize Cash Prizes Under Consideration, SpaceRef Business “The plans laid out in this draft document embody a radical departure from the current approach to awarding prizes i.e. one winner, one big prize with several smaller runner-up prizes. Now, multiple teams will be able to get even smaller cash prizes for efforts already completed or near completion – but far short of actually sending a […]
Loony or logical? Bill favors national park on moon, Florida Today “Imagine a U.S. National Park like Yellowstone or the Great Smoky Mountains on the moon, one that would protect artifacts left behind by the Apollo astronauts. Sound crazy? It’s not as far-fetched as it seems. A bill introduced in Congress recently would “endow the artifacts as a National Historic Park, thereby asserting unquestioned ownership rights over the Apollo lunar […]
NASA Seeks Information on Commercial Robotic Lunar Lander Capabilities “NASA Tuesday issued a Request for Information (RFI) that will help agency officials better understand current plans in the U.S. commercial space industry for a robotic lunar landing capability. The RFI will assist NASA in assessing U.S. industry’s interest in partnerships to develop a robotic lander that could enable commercial and agency missions. NASA does not envision an exchange of funds […]
