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Researchers using data from China’s Chang’e 4 lunar lander and Yutu-2 rover were able to confirm many details of the Moon’s farside subsurface that were previously only theory.
Planned to land on the Moon in 2025, the Roscosmos Luna 27 will carry an ESA designed robotic drill and laboratory dedicated to collecting and processing volatiles from regolith. While we know ice exists within permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) at the lunar poles, little is known about the exact composition and structure. In-situ sampling is therefore essential for understanding this ice, allowing engineers to build better ice processing systems.
China dominates. Asteroid mining dies but attends its own funeral. Reusable rockets lower the cost and increase access to space. The Moon, Mars, and asteroids all get new survey maps for water resources. Water-based thrusters perform well in orbit. Asteroids are blasted and samples collected. Space mining gets more legal scaffolding. The Moon gets one new rover and two new craters.
A prototype plant for studying the extraction of oxygen from lunar regolith started operations recently in the Netherlands. The oxygen extraction method uses a molten salt electrolysis process to remove oxygen from regolith. This ESA based project is an enabling technology for a sustainable presence on the Moon. Being able to collect oxygen from the bountiful lunar regolith will provide a robust supply of rocket oxidizer, breathable air, and feedstock for industrial processes.
Having been in development for years, the Lunar IceCube spacecraft will soon be deployed in lunar orbit where it will map the distribution and dynamics of water on the lunar surface. NASA recently selected the IceCube mission to be one of the thirteen CubeSats deployed during the Artemis 1 mission in 2021. The data IceCube will collect is critical for planning future lunar ice mining missions, especially knowing where the water is on the Moon.
In a talk at the SpaceCom Expo, Tom Cremins, the Associate Administrator for Strategy and Plans at NASA stated that NASA would be releasing a request for information (RFI) to industry for development of a crew capable lunar rover, to be developed in a public-private partnership.
NASA recently announced that five new companies, including SpaceX and Blue Origin, are able to bid to provide payload delivery to the lunar surface via the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. The CLPS initiative is encouraging aerospace providers to develop innovative solutions to quickly deliver future payloads to the lunar surface. Although there are now 14 providers vying for only five current opportunities, the high competition will ensure the winning bidders can provide a technically robust solution at an affordable price and acceptable time-frame. Additional opportunities are planned but not guaranteed.
Planetoid Mines is a privately-owned startup based out of New Mexico, USA whose primary focus is developing the core components of asteroid mining.
An international team of Chinese, American, and Russian scientists may have conducted the most extensive study of lunar Permanently Shadowed Region (PSR) ice yet performed. By comparing the reflections from flat surfaces in major PSRs to those of adjacent non-PSRs, they determined that the vast majority contain ice. However, the ice appears to be restricted to the uppermost surface.
NASA’s return of humans to the Moon in 2024 will involve large numbers of Moon landings with equipment and supplies. New technology must be used to mitigate the lunar dust ejected at high velocities when landing large Moon landers on the lunar surface. SpaceX and Masten both have innovative solutions to combat this problem.