NASA opens Nighttime Precision Landing Challenge to help future moon missions
NASA wants your help to safely land future lunar spacecraft in the dark, including permanently shadowed craters that may be icy. The agency’s new Nighttime Precision Landing Challenge No. 1 plans to award as many as three prizes of up to $650,000…
Toyota to Develop Moon-Exploring Car with Japan Space Agency | ‘Lunar’ Cruiser?
Toyota is joining the race to the Moon, developing its moon-exploring car with Japan’s space agency, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, known as the Lunar Cruiser. The Sun shines on the Toyota logo at the world’s largest auto dealership,…
Moonlight Initiative: Lunar Communications and Navigation Services (LCNS) Call for Ideas and Use Cases
BACKGROUND AND MOTIVATION As of today, several dozens of commercial and institutional missions to the Moon are planned for the coming decades, exceeding the number of successful lunar missions during the space race in the 60s and 70s. One of…
NASA funds thermal control solutions for harsh lunar environments
TAMPA, Fla. — Advanced Cooling Technologies (ACT) has won NASA funding for thermal control solutions that enable vehicles and other equipment to survive harsh lunar environments without an active power source. The Lancaster, Pennsylvania-based thermal solutions provider said it will…
ispace Europe, ArianeGroup and ESA to Assess Commercial Partnership for Lunar Transportation Services
LUXEMBOURG, December 10 (ispace PR) – ispace Europe (ispace EU), the European subsidiary of ispace, inc., and ArianeGroup have been selected by the European Space Agency (ESA) to participate in a pilot phase aiming to establish commercial partnerships in Europe…
Historic partnership: Australian lunar base camp builder teams up with UNSW
Cutting-edge Australian 3D printing building and construction company, Luyten, has signed an historic Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the University of New South Wales (UNSW) to fast-track development and delivery of 3D printing technology to build structures on the…
SSC and Masten Space Systems sign agreement for 2023 lunar mission
SSC and Masten Space Systems has signed an agreement to provide communications support for Masten’s upcoming mission to the lunar south pole scheduled to launch in 2023. The agreement was announced today at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) 2021 in…
Space miners may use rockets to harvest the moon’s water ice
Rockets may help humanity explore the solar system in more ways than one. Three companies — Masten Space Systems, Lunar Outpost and Honeybee Robotics — are developing a new system that would use rockets to mine water ice on the moon. Water ice…
JAXA and Honda to Begin a Feasibility Study on a Circulative Renewable Energy System
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Honda R&D Co., Ltd. (Honda) today announced the plan to begin a joint feasibility study on a “circulative renewable energy system” in space, which is designed to supply oxygen, hydrogen, and electricity for…