(parachutes to ~10 meters, SuperDraco propulsive touchdown. One of 4 possible landing modes)

Dragon V2 Demo Mission 1: 30 day ISS un-crewed mission, NET December 2016

Dragon V2 Demo Mission 2: 14 day ISS crewed mission, NET April 2017

SpaceX Dragon V2 CCtCap milestones (PDF)....

The Boeing CST-100 milestones have not been released yet.

≈========≠=========

StarLink 4-8

Date; February 20, 2022

Time: 1113 Eastern (1613 UT) Pad: LC-40

Booster: B1058.11

Recovery: ASDS A Shortfall of Gravitas
Payload: 46 Starlink sats w/laser links

Orbit: 53.2° inclination, SE trajectory

Super Heavy and Starship

Thread 1.... (Interplanetary Transport System)

Updated CGI pending.

FAA application for test flights pending.

FCC application for test flights...

Description of tests (duration: 24 months)

>
Description of Research Project

SpaceX is looking to fly and operate a Research and Development (R&D) Vertical Takeoff, Vertical Landing (VTVL) vehicle at its South Texas location. The vehicle will take off, ascend vertically to a low altitude, and then descend back to its original landing spot. While the vehicle is in the air, it is important to have communications with the vehicle for two main reasons:

1. Downlink: SpaceX can view the data in real‐time and ensure that all parameters remain nominal.

2. Uplink: If there is an anomaly, SpaceX needs the ability to command the vehicle into a safe state (as a backup to its onboard safety systems).

Thus, to ensure both a safe and useful test, it is important for SpaceX to maintain a bidirectional RF link between the control center and the vehicle.

SpaceX wishes to use the same transmitters on the VTVL vehicle that it uses on its other vehicles. The
major difference is that the ERP is reduced on this vehicle by two orders of magnitude. This transmitter
has been demonstrated to be very safe and reliable under both flight and test conditions and the regulatory agencies involved (both FAA and FCC) are familiar with the hardware and frequencies.

The tests themselves are divided into low‐altitude and higher‐altitude tests. The low‐altitude tests stay below 500 meters in altitude and last approximately 100 seconds. These tests will be run approximately three times per week during the initial portion of the program. The higher‐altitude tests can go as high as 5 km and will occur approximately once per week. These tests last approximately 6 minutes.

Please note that SpaceX is also applying for an experimental permit from the FAA in order to gain permission to run these VTVL tests.
>

Gizmodo....

For now, the mice with this electronic mesh are connected by a wire to computer — but in the future, this connection could become wireless.

The most amazing part about the mesh is that the mouse brain cells grew around it, forming connections with the wires, essentially welcoming a mechanical component into a biochemical system.

But Musk's Neuralink venture is for human - AI interfacing.

Resistance is futile

Ars Technica....

Elon Musk is setting up a company that will link brains and computers

The ultimate goal would be a neural lace to enhance peoples cognitive abilities.

Get ready to plug in.

Billionaire futurist space explorer Elon Musk has a new project: a "medical research company" called Neuralink that will make brain-computer interfaces. Musk's projects are frequently inspired by science fiction, and this one is a direct reference to a device called a "neural lace," invented by the late British novelist Iain M. Banks for his Culture series. In those books, characters grow a semi-organic mesh on their cerebral cortexes, which allows them to interface wirelessly with AIs and create backups of their minds.

Having a neural lace, in Banks' fiction, makes people essentially immortalif they die, they're revived from the last backup. Musk isn't seeking immortality just yet, however. Though he's said publicly several times that he'd like to upload and download thoughts, possibly to fight against evil AI, he imagines that Neuralink's proof-of-concept products will be implanted electrodes for treating epilepsy and depression. They will be much like current implants for treating Parkinson's, which work by regulating electrical activity in the brain.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the company will likely be funded entirely by Musk or by the Founders Fund, a VC firm founded by Peter Thiel. The Journal also reports that the company has hired three people already: "Vanessa Tolosa, an engineer at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and an expert in flexible electrodes; Philip Sabes, a professor at the University of California in San Francisco, who studies how the brain controls movement; and Timothy Gardner, a professor at Boston University who is known for implanting tiny electrodes in the brains of finches to study how the birds sing."

Their work will build on over a decade's worth of successful brain-computer interfaces (BCI), beginning with BrainGate, an early BCI tech that allows people to type messages on a computer by picking out letters one-by-one on a screen. It works by connecting to the brain's motor cortex: When the person thinks about moving, that thought is translated into movements of a cursor. But this method is still quite slow, and Musk's company hopes to speed things along.

Other BCI experiments have involved using computers to control the movements of insects and rats. The infamous "Robo Rat," developed in 2002, could be made to turn right or left while walking by stimulating brain regions related to right and left whisker sensations as well as its reward centers. Today, this kind of technology is so commonplace that there is a science kit aimed at children called the RoboRoach, which allows kids to put a brain implant into a cockroach to control its movements.

It's not clear how well the Robo Rat and RoboRoach scenarios would work in humans, whose brains are far more complex and still poorly understood. But that's not stopping Musk, who is known for making prototypes first and asking questions later. He told Vanity Fair that "we're already cyborgs" and "a meaningful partial-brain interface" is just "four or five years away."

https://spacenews.com/space-force-looks-at-options-for-relieving-cape-canaveral-launch-congestion/

Quote

 

[...] the Space Force studied the ability to conduct launches to polar orbits, traditionally flown from the Western Range at Vandenberg Space Force Base, from Florida. “It turns out you can,” he said, with SpaceX launching several Falcon 9 missions to polar orbits in recent years from Florida.

“So we did the reverse: can you launch East Coast missions off the West Coast, from Vandenberg? Fascinatingly, you can,” he said. Such launches had traditionally been ruled out because of trajectories that would take vehicles over land.

He didn’t elaborate on the analysis in his presentation, but said it “opened the door” for long-term discussions about eventually conducting launches to lower-inclination orbits from Vandenberg. “As we continue to hone safety analyses for the ranges, and as some particular launch providers have got a large number of successful launches, we’ve been able to narrow the boxes more and more,” he said, referring to exclusion zones for launches.

>

 

Contract value between $25.000 and $2.5 billion (!!)

There are several small lunar landers getting ready to fly, but Blue Origin's Blue Moon lander is said to be good for 4 metric tons of cargo and SpaceX's BFS spaceship will be a  monster.

Presolicitation,

https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&tab=core&id=46b23a8f2c06da6ac08e1d1d2ae97d35&tab=documents&tabmode=list

Quote

Solicitation Number: 80HQTR18R0011R
Notice Type: Presolicitation
Synopsis:
Added: Apr 27, 2018 3:44 pm

The purpose of this requirement is to acquire end-to-end payload services between the Earth and lunar surface for NASA Headquarters' Science, Human Exploration and Operations and Science Technolgy Mission Directorates.  The contractors shall provide all activities necessary to safely intergrate, accomodate, transport, and operate NASA Payloads using contractor provide assets, including launch vehicles, lunar lander spacecraft, lunar surface systems, Earth re-entry vehicles and associated resources.

Please consult the list of document viewers if you cannot open a file.
>

At first the US effort was given a whimsical name, Cislunar Highway Patrol (CHPs), but now things are getting more serious. Both DoD and NASA are working on nuclear propulsion for both robotic and human missions in cislunar space, and now the satellites to monitor that domain are on the way; Oracle..

Quote

 

AFRL: Oracle Satellite - Cislunar Space

The Air Force Research Laboratory’s Oracle spacecraft will collect observations of resident space objects in the region near the Moon and potentially beyond. These observations will be cataloged and used to maintain awareness in the regime.

Oracle will deliver advanced space capabilities in support of the U.S. Space Force’s space situational awareness mission.

 

---------------------------------------

Two designers just won $1.5 million for creating a device that can pull clean drinking water out of thin air

A rendering of Skysource/Skywater Alliance's shipping container design for making drinking water out of air.

 The Skysource / Skywater Alliance

Quote

---About 2.1 billion people around the world do not have immediate access to clean drinking water.

---The Water Abundance XPrize competition rewards innovators who come up with new ways to harvest clean water from the atmosphere.

---This year, the winning design can produce at least 2,000 liters of water per day, which would satisfy the needs of 100 people.

A California-based team of designers has built a shipping container that can harvest enough water from the air to satisfy 100 people's daily needs.

 

Architect David Hertz and his colleague, Rich Groden, recently received $1.5 million as the winners of the Water Abundance XPrize, a competition that aims to help alleviate global water shortages.

 

About 2.1 billion people around the world lack immediate access to clean drinking water, and the US Defense Intelligence Agency estimates that water requirements will exceed supplies by 40% shortage by 2030.

 

The XPrize competition was created in 2016 to address that problem by rewarding designers who come up with new ways to pull fresh water out of thin air.

 

Nearly 100 teams entered this year's competition, and two finalists were asked to test their devices last month. The finalists had to show that their inventions could extract at least 2,000 liters of water per day, at a cost of less than 2 cents per liter.

 

According to a press release, Hertz and Groden's team, called Skysource/Skywater Alliance, won the grand prize because it "demonstrated the greatest ability to create decentralized access to water."

How the system works...

Quote

Skysource/Skywater Alliance's creation is called "WeDew," which stands for wood-to-energy deployed water system. It's a combination of two existing devices. The first, Skywater, is a generator that imitates a cloud. Skywater, co-invented by Groden, cools warm air and stores the resulting condensation inside a tank. Water in the shipping container's tank can then be accessed via a tap or water fountain.

The condensation process requires electricity, so the architects also incorporated a biomass gasifier into their system as a low-cost energy source, as Fast Company reported. Gasifiers can take in organic material and vaporize it to produce a gas mixture of hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide that serves as a fuel.

A gasifier can be filled with various types of biomass, including coconut shells and pieces of pine trees. The vaporization creates heat and humidity, which help the water-gathering device operate efficiently. In addition, the gasifier produces biochar as a byproduct, a carbon-rich substance that can be put in soil to help plants grow.

Quote

A race to pull water from the air

The new XPrize winner joins a growing number of teams working on devices that can produce water from the air.

 

This year's runner-up, Hawaii-based JMCC WING, received $150,000 for a wind-energy system that extracts water from the atmosphere.

 

Researchers at the University of Akron in Ohio also recently began developing a prototype water harvester that could produce up to 10 gallons of drinking water every hour.

Dr. Josh Wong, a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Akron, previously told Business Insider that he hopes the water harvester can be used in regions where water is scarce.

Wong presented his findings at an American Chemical Society meeting in August, and is working to secure enough funding for developing a prototype. He said his design would be cheaper than other similar concepts, and he expects it to be smaller as well — it may take the form of a backpack.

 

Earlier this year, scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, also developed a device that can harvest fresh water from the air using just the sun's heat. The group tested a prototype in Arizona and published the results of their trial in the journal Science Advances. Their device can yield about 7 ounces of water in 24 hours, which isn't enough to keep someone hydrated. But the scientists said in a video that scaling the system up would be relatively easy.

 

Another startup, Zero Mass Water, uses solar energy to produce heat and harvest liquid water from vapor in the air. The startup launched its first product, Source, in 2015, and it has since installed devices in more than a dozen countries. Source became available in the US late last year.

Hertz and Groden, meanwhile, are planning to start teaming up with nonprofits to implement their prize-winning technology all over the world, according to Fast Company. They said the shipping containers could one day help provide drinking water in areas hit by natural disasters.

https://www.businessinsider.com/device-that-harvests-water-from-air-wins-xprize-2018-10?r=UK&IR=T

--------------------------------------------

Inventor that harvested fresh water from the sky wins XPRIZE competition

Quote

At the annual Visioneering 2018 gathering in Los Angeles, the team at XPRIZE formally announced their grand prize Water Abundance competition winner: Skysource/Skywater Alliance, a company now $1.5 million dollars richer for developing a sustainable way to harvest drinking water from the sky.

 

The rules of the competition were strict: The teams’ devices had to extract 2,000 liters of water from the air per day using 100% renewable energy for a maximum of two cents per liter. Rising to the challenge of the narrow parameters, 98 teams submitted proposals, and five had ideas that made it to the final round before the winner was chosen after the two-year time frame allotted for development.

Quote

The difference brought on by the XPRIZE was the accessibility of the technology. Namely, the high energy needs of the systems historically put areas without access to such energy at a great disadvantage towards tapping into its potential. Skysource/Skywater Alliance made a key development to meet the requirements of the competition in adapting their products to produce water via sustainable, low-cost power methods like solar panels and biomass gasifiers. As specified, their modified devices operate on 100% renewable, affordable energy sources.

Thanks to motivation brought on by the Water Abundance competition, clean drinking water may soon be within reach of populations at most risk from water shortages. 

-----------------------------------------

GRAND PRIZE WINNER IN $1.75M WATER ABUNDANCE XPRIZE ANNOUNCED AT XPRIZE VISIONEERING 2018

https://www.xprize.org/articles/waxp-grand-prize-winner

Official release..

Well done by all...

Date: April 27, 2023

Time: 1929 Eastern (2329 UT)

Pad: LC-39A

Orbit: direct injection to GEO

Recovery: expended

Rideshares

- Aurora 4A, a small geo-sat for Astranis
- Nusantara-H1-A, a cubesat for Indonesia

Thread 8:

Musk at ISS R&D

Quote

If you want to get the public really fired up, you really need a base on the Moon

In line with the earlier comments before Congress that pushed  for a cis-lunar COTS program.

Quote

Falcon Heavy requires the simultaneous ignition of 27 orbital class engines. There's a lot that could go wrong there. And I encourage people to come down to the Cape and see the first Falcon Heavy mission. It's guaranteed to be exciting. 
>

Translation: a high risk of failure on the first flight. No duh!

Quote

 

I see ISC in Adelaide as a good time to do the updated version of the Mars architecture. It's evolved quite a bit since the last talk.

>

I kind of think that if we downsize to Mars vehicle, make it capable of doing Earth orbit activity as well as Mars activity, then maybe we could pay for it using money for Earth orbit activities.

Subscale BFR/BFS confirmed to better make the business case (but still very large), and sooner so it can be used in LEO and cis-lunar space.

Red Dragon & Dragon 2 propulsive landings

Early Mars missions will use using the subscale BFR/BFS  system, so Red Dragon is cancelled. Capsules landing with side thrusters are now irrelevant to Mars entry/descent/landing as that'll be done using a lifting body - which allows for a  much larger heat shield and vehicle.

Without this testbed Dragon 2 propulsive landings are off the table for safety cert reasons (ahem - NASA suits & ASAP, again). Landing legs removed. Continuing to push the issue with NASA & ASAP would delay their crewed flights.

Propulsive landings may come back later - but they want to concentrate personnel and resources on getting Crew Dragon, FH, and the updated BFR/BFS architecture flying. And soon.

It'll also be interesting to see the engine choice for ACES: AeroJet RL-10, Blue Origin BE-3U or XCOR's XR-5K18, and how air-capture of the lower stages thrust structure works out.

http://spacenews.com/ulas-vulcan-rocket-to-be-rolled-out-in-stages/#sthash.ktfuTx6f.dpuf

ULAs Vulcan Rocket To be Rolled out in Stages

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. United Launch Alliance unveiled an incremental approach to replace its workhorse Atlas 5 rocket, an ambitious path forward that ultimately would include a new second stage and, later, reusable first-stage engines that would be captured midair by helicopter after each mission.

The plan would provide a competitive alternative to SpaceXs low-cost Falcon 9 rocket but entails risk for ULA as it funds a significant development program for as many as nine years as its competition gains momentum.

Tory Bruno, ULAs president and chief executive, declined to detail the companys exact investment in the project but suggested that new rockets typically cost about $2 billion to develop, including the main engine. During an April 13 press conference on the eve the 31st Space Symposium here, he said that cost would be borne by ULA and its strategic partners, but that the company would not turn down government money if that becomes available.

The first step in the developing the newly named Vulcan rocket is developing a new first stage featuring the methane-fueled BE-4 engine by Blue Origin of Kent, Washington. ULA is also working with Aerojet Rocketdyne on the AR-1 engine, in case the BE-4 runs into delays.

>

In addition to the new engine, the Vulcans first stage would feature a stretch version of the tank used on ULAs Delta 4 rocket, which the company is phasing out in 2018 because it is too expensive. The second stage of the initial Vulcan version, slated to debut around 2019, would feature the same Centaur upper stage and fairing now used on the Atlas 5, Bruno said.

The Vulcan could be augmented by up to six solid rocket boosters, giving it greater lift capability than the largest version of the Atlas 5 but not as much as the Delta 4 Heavy, which features three core stages in a side-by-side configuration. Bruno said he plans to issue a request for proposals within the next 12 months for the large boosters, which would likely be built by either Orbital ATK or Aerojet Rocketdyne.

ULA told the Air Force in February it plans to start two separate U.S. Air Force certification processes for the rocket later this year, one with the BE-4 and one with the AR-1. Certification is required for the Vulcan to carry U.S. national security payloads.

Bruno said ULAs first choice is the BE-4 but that it continues to fund the AR-1 work as a backup option, and that ULA will make a final decision on in 2016.

The next step in Vulcans evolution is a new upper stage known as the Advanced Cryogenic Evolved Stage, or ACES, which could be able to operate in space for weeks at a time, ULA officials said. This would open up a whole new range of missions to the Vulcan, ULA officials said.

The ACES stage would have anywhere from one to four cryogenic engines, depending on the mission. The candidate engines are: a new variant of the RL10 produced by Aerojet Rocketdyne and currently used on both the Atlas 5 and Delta 4; Blue Origins BE-3; and an engine being jointly developed with XCOR aerospace.

ULA will select the engine for the ACES stage in the next few years, Bruno said.

Aerial Recovery

Ultimately, ULA plans to reuse the Vulcans first stage engines through a process called Sensible Modular Autonomous Return Technology. After first-stage burnout, the two engines would be severed from the tank and deploy an inflatable heat shield to slow their re-entry. They then would deploy steerable parachutes, which would slow their descent enough so they could be recovered in mid-air by a helicopter.

>

Bruno has said he hopes to drive the cost of the standard Vulcan rocket down to about $100 million.

ULA hopes to introduce the ACES upper stage in 2023 and the reusable first stage in 2024, Bruno said.

ACES S2 with piston engine/pumps/generator

Twitter

This doesn't look good.

The satellites and ground receivers are said to use electronically steerable phased array antennas, a technology usually associated with military radars. These multi-element antennae have now been shrunk to the size of a silicon chip.

This about pending spectrum "discussions" is a good place to start.

http://www.fiercewireless.com/tech/story/5g-proceeding-spacex-urges-fcc-protect-future-satellite-ventures/2015-02-22

Quote

In 5G proceeding, SpaceX urges FCC to protect future satellite ventures

Space Exploration Technologies, otherwise known as SpaceX, the space transport company founded by billionaire Elon Musk, wants the FCC to consider not only existing but future innovative uses of Ka-band spectrum before committing to a proceeding that might create barriers to entry.

The company made the comments as part of the FCC's Notice of Inquiry (NOI) on technical and service rules for 5G in bands above 24 GHz. Reply comments on the proceeding were due last week. Several other satellite-related entities, as well as wireless industry vendors and service providers, filed comments as well.

SpaceX pointed out that it recently announced plans to build a network of 4,000 non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) communications satellites, which it will manufacture, launch and operate. It plans to hire a large number of skilled workers at a new satellite manufacturing center in the Seattle area.

While well established as a launch services company with NASA contracts, SpaceX will be a new entrant in the satellite communications space, seeking to provide low-cost, high-speed broadband Internet service worldwide, including to end-users in the United States. SpaceX said its network will be operating in higher frequency bands, including the Ka-band spectrum at issue in the current FCC proceeding.

The company notes that the record in the proceeding firmly establishes that satellite operators have launched or are developing satellite systems to operate in the Ka-band frequencies above 24 GHz. For its part, SpaceX says it will join the ranks of Ka-band spectrum satellite operators "in the near term" as it begins to test and deploy its network of satellites.

The Satellite Industry Association (SIA) has asked the commission to carefully consider the potential impact on incumbent satellite services in bands above 24 GHz from possible sharing with new 5G services, and SpaceX echoed those concerns.

SpaceX urges the commission to take into account new satellite entrants and not just incumbent satellite operators and their existing or planned operations. "SpaceX is committed to introducing a new NGSO network in the Ka-band, further enhancing competition and innovation for satellite services. Any adopted 5G policies should contemplate the continued march of innovation and new entrant business models so as to enhance competition and expand consumer choices in the Ka-band," the company said.

The company also noted that even in satellite uplink bands, there are potential challenges to sharing between intensive, high-power terrestrial operations and satellite services. Satellite earth station uplink operations have the potential to cause interference into terrestrial receive antennas, and aggregate interference from terrestrial operations could adversely affect satellite receive operations. Such effects are particularly important to consider in the context of NGSO operations, where steerable earth station transmit antennas would have a wider geographic impact and significantly lower satellite altitudes magnify the impact of aggregate interference from terrestrial transmissions, the company said.

>

>

For more:

- see this SpaceX filing

- see this Straight Path filing

- see the EchoStar filing

Date: Feb 26, 2023

Time: 0207 Eastern (0707 UT)

Crew

Commander: Stephen Bowen, NASA

Pilot: Warren Hoburg, NASA

Mission Specialist 1: Sultan Al Neyadi, UAE Space Agency

Mission Specialist 2: Andrey Fedyaev, Roscosmos (Russia)

I LOVE THIS PATCH!!

Might see the tower footings etc.

----------

WATCH LIVE: INMARSAT I-6 F2 MISSION

SpaceX is targeting today, Friday, February 17 for launch of the Inmarsat I-6 F2 mission to orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The 89-minute launch window opens at 10:59 p.m. ET (03:59 UTC on February 18). If needed, a backup opportunity is available on Saturday, February 18 with the same window.

The first stage booster supporting this mission previously launched Crew-5 and GPS III Space Vehicle 06. Following stage separation, the first stage will land on the Just Read the Instructions droneship, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

The first mission is Polaris Dawn, which will try to orbit higher than Gemini 11 (1,368 km), do the first civilian spacewalk, and test Starlink laser communications to a crewed spacecraft.

The first and second flights would be a board Crew Dragon, the third aboard Starship.

(hint: open in an incognito tab)

https://t.co/9fowUWJqoS

Quote

Jared Isaacman, who led the first all-private astronaut mission to orbit, has commissioned 3 more flights from SpaceX

>

The first flight, which could come by the end of the year, will aim to send a crew of four farther than any other human spaceflight in 50 years and feature the first private-citizen spacewalk, Isaacman said in an exclusive interview with The Washington Post. The second flight also would be aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, the vehicle that NASA now relies on to fly astronauts to the International Space Station.

>

The first flight, which could come by the end of the year, will aim to send a crew of four farther than any other human spaceflight in 50 years and feature the first private-citizen spacewalk, Isaacman said in an exclusive interview with The Washington Post. The second flight also would be aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, the vehicle that NASA now relies on to fly astronauts to the International Space Station.

>

Program page,

https://polarisprogram.com/

Let's spin the turbopump, shall we? 

SpaceX is targeting Wednesday, January 18 at 7:10 a.m. ET (12:10 UTC) for Falcon 9’s launch of the GPS III Space Vehicle 06 mission from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. A backup launch opportunity is available on Thursday, January 19 at 7:05 a.m. ET (12:05 UTC).

The first stage booster supporting this mission previously launched Crew-5. Following stage separation, the first stage will land on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

https://youtu.be/uLetihk5VNk

Date: January 14, 2023

Window: 1745 - 2100 Eastern

Pad: LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center

Destination: direct insertion into geostationary orbit

Recovery

- boosters: LZ-1 & LZ-2

- center core: expended

Coverage will end after upper stage separation due to National Security concerns.

SpaceX is targeting 9:56 a.m. ET (14:56 UTC) on Tuesday, January 3 for Falcon 9’s launch of the Transporter-6 mission to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

The first stage booster supporting this mission previously launched GPS III-3, Turksat 5A, Transporter-2, Intelsat G-33/G-34 and 10 Starlink missions. Following stage separation, Falcon 9 will land on Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Transporter-6 is SpaceX’s sixth dedicated smallsat rideshare mission. There will be 114 payloads on this flight, including CubeSats, microsats, picosats, and orbital transfer vehicles carrying spacecraft to be deployed at a later time.

To start this thread, I found a good editorial which encompasses the future plans for a lunar colony and entities with an interest...and a plan.

Op-ed | Getting Serious About the Moon Village

“A Moon Village,” said ESA director-general Johann-Dietrich Woerner, “shouldn’t just mean some houses, a church and a town hall.” It could be beacon of international and even commercial cooperation. Credit: ESA artist's concept of a lunar outpost 

Recently I had the privilege of attending the 66th International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Jerusalem.

I will confess that in the days leading up to the event, I was feeling rather conflicted. Since I had never been to that part of the world before, I was very much looking forward to the trip. On the other hand, the recent episodes of violence and the often-conflicting guidance about personal safety and security caused me to continually reassess the risks and rewards during each phase of my itinerary.

Now that we are back home, safe and sound, I can honestly say that it was a truly amazing experience, and I am very glad that I went. Having an opportunity to participate in an international conference focused on space exploration in a city having thousands of years of history made for some dramatic contrasts between old and new. And the presence of such an incredible diversity of cultures and religions, with people living and working together in a surprisingly compact geographical area, highlighted some of the challenges and opportunities that we are facing in figuring out how to collaborate on our future space activities.

One of the highlights of the conference itself was a plenary session featuring the leaders of almost all of the major space agencies from around the world. NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden and representatives from Russia, China, the European Space Agency, Japan, India and Israel were seated on the stage and had a chance to share their perspectives and answer questions from the moderators.

I was pleasantly surprised by the spirit of cooperation that all conveyed. One notable exception, which was clearly articulated during the discussion, had to do with the inability of NASA to partner with China on specific space projects, based on constraints in existing law. Other nations, of course, have no such restrictions.

When it came time to talk about plans for the future, I was particularly impressed with the comments made by Johann-Dietrich Woerner, the new director-general of the European Space Agency. Woerner served as chairman of the executive board of DLR, the German Aerospace Center, from March 2007 until June 2015, and took over as ESA chief on July 1.

Woerner’s vision for space exploration involves the establishment of what he calls a “Moon Village” on the far side of the moon. “A Moon Village,” he said, “shouldn’t just mean some houses, a church and a town hall.” Instead, he said, the village “should mean partners from all over the world contributing with robotic and astronaut missions and support communications satellites.”

What appeals to me about that kind of a vision is that it minimizes the requirement for a very prescriptive, top-down management structure with one country specifying the architecture and calling all of the shots. Instead, it would enable countries to participate as much or as little as they chose, based on their capabilities and their interests.

The timing of Woerner’s proposal seems particularly appropriate. We are currently undergoing a dramatic transformation in how space missions are carried out.

Ever since the dawn of the Space Age more than 50 years ago, almost all of the major milestones and historical achievements in space have been accomplished by government space agencies. Even though many companies were actively involved as support contractors, it was the government that was doing most of the planning, direction and execution of missions, whether it involved launching satellites, landing astronauts on the moon or building and operating the International Space Station.

Going forward, that is no longer necessarily going to be the case. In the future, private industry is going to be playing an increasingly important role in space, sometimes as part of a public/private partnership, in other cases by selling products and services to the government, and perhaps on occasion without any government involvement at all.

SpaceX and Orbital ATK are already taking supplies to our astronauts onboard the International Space Station as part of the commercial cargo program. Boeing and SpaceX hope to be transporting crew members to and from the ISS for the commercial crew program as early as 2017. And Bigelow Aerospace plans to start launching and operating commercial space station modules as soon as a commercial crew transportation capability has been successfully demonstrated. Meanwhile, Virgin Galactic and XCOR Aerospace expect to begin commercial operations with their suborbital space tourism vehicles within the next couple of years.

Because of the inherent market uncertainty, one might assume that, at least for the near-future, commercial space ventures will primarily be limited to either suborbital space flights or transportation to and from low Earth orbit (LEO). But in reality, when it comes to space exploration and other missions beyond LEO, some of the most ambitious objectives, as well as many of the more innovative concepts, are being worked on by the private sector. For example:

The Google Lunar X Prize is offering up to $30 million to the first nongovernmental teams to land a rover on the moon, successfully translate across the lunar terrain, and send high-definition video back to Earth.

Moon Express wants to investigate and potentially exploit various kinds of lunar resources.

Golden Spike believes it can make a profit by enabling astronauts from many different countries to conduct scientific expeditions on the moon.

Bigelow Aerospace is looking at soft landing habitable modules on the lunar surface.

Shackleton Energy plans to extract water ice from the poles of the moon and then turn it into rocket fuel.

Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries are both developing capabilities for asteroid mining.

In the end, we know that many of these endeavors are not likely to be successful, either because they will encounter unexpected technical difficulties or because they will run out of money. But it is exciting to see the wide variety of activities that are currently being pursued completely outside of the process for traditional government space programs.

Can any of this be of benefit to a Moon Village initiative? I think it can.

The International Space Exploration Coordination Group published a Global Exploration Roadmap in August 2013, and one of its three mission themes is “Humans to the Lunar Surface.” It notes that, “Many agencies consider human missions to the lunar surface as an essential step in preparation for human Mars missions.”

NASA has certainly expressed support for such missions, although, as Bolden has pointed out on several occasions, “the United States has no intention of leading the effort.” In his remarks at the IAC, Woerner acknowledged that NASA’s recent planning has been focused on going to Mars, rather than returning to the moon. However, in his opinion, “Before going to Mars, we should test what we could do on Mars on the moon.” That makes a lot of sense to me.

So the idea of a Moon Village really resonates with me. But I’d like to suggest a modest change to Woerner’s proposal. Instead of assuming that each inhabitant of the village is a representative of a particular nation, or a government space agency, let’s open it up to commercial entities. After all, every self-respecting village needs a marketplace, where goods and services can be bought, sold or traded for.

The possibilities are limitless.

We’ll need someone to build habitats on the lunar surface, whether they are “space hotels” or more permanent lodging.

Others could focus on extracting water from the lunar regolith, which could then be broken down into hydrogen and oxygen and stored at the neighborhood propellant depot.

Companies could offer electrical power by constructing and operating large solar arrays.

I’m not sure whether lunar farmers will decide to grow potatoes, lettuce, tomatoes or some other celestial delicacies, but the village people will certainly need something to eat, and I’m sure that freeze-dried TV dinners can get old after a while.

Astronauts will likely use rovers to travel long distances across the lunar surface, although it is probably too early to know whether it will be via a Yellow Cab or Uber.

Operating a rocket-powered shuttle bus to and from lunar orbit would make an interesting market niche. But there’s no reason to think that every lunar soil sample would need to be transported all the way back to Earth. Instead, why not assume that the geologists and other scientific researchers could perform their investigations right on site, at the local lunar university?

The bottom line is, as we start to contemplate the idea of establishing villages on the moon, or elsewhere in the solar system, let’s not limit our thinking to government space agencies. Private industry has the potential to play an important role, and it need not be exclusively as a government contractor.

by George Nield — November 10, 2015

http://spacenews.com/op-ed-getting-serious-about-the-moon-village/ 

This summary pretty much shows the intent for a lunar village is real, is being planned and will begin in the very near future.

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Russia touts plan to land a man on the Moon by 2029

File image.

A manned lunar landing by Russian cosmonauts is planned for 2029, the head of the Russian Space Agency Energia said Tuesday.

"A manned flight to the moon and lunar landing is planned for 2029," Vladimir Solntsev said during a space technology conference in Moscow.

The Energia chief, a spacecraft components manufacturer, said Russian scientists were building a new spacecraft made of composites specifically for moon missions. Its maiden flight is scheduled for 2021.

In 2023, the spacecraft is due to dock with the International Space Station, with the first unmanned lunar mission set for 2025.

According to earlier reports, Russia plans to land a Luna-25 research vessel on the south pole of the moon instead of its equator, where all other landings have been centered.

The plan is to explore the internal structure of the Earth's only natural satellite and the impact of the cosmic rays and electromagnetic radiation on its surface, as well as to look for natural resources in the area.

 http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Russia_touts_plan_to_land_a_man_on_the_Moon_by_2029_999.html

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Japan Plans Unmanned Moon Landing

A partial lunar eclipse is seen behind cherry blossoms in Tochigi prefecture, eastern Japan, in April.

 

Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

 

Japan plans to become the fourth country to accomplish an unmanned moon landing.

The government’s space policy committee Wednesday updated the schedule of the nation’s space exploration program and marked 2019 as the year to launch an unmanned lander to the moon. The lander’s development is scheduled to start next year.

In 2013, China became the third country to conduct an unmanned moon landing,following the U.S. and the former Soviet Union. Although Japan is late to the race, getting there is not the sole objective of the mission.

According to the committee, Japan’s lunar lander will be developed with a new technology enabling it to land within 100 meters of its initial mark. Others missed by a far wider margin. Among technologies Japan will use to improve the accuracy will be those from a facial recognition system that will observe the surface of the moon to help make necessary adjustments.

To demonstrate such pinpoint landing precision will help increase Japan’s stature and presence in space exploration, including in future joint efforts with other countries, the committee said.

The government will seek public opinion about the lunar project and space exploration policies and finalize the plan within the year.

 

http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2015/11/12/japan-plans-unmanned-moon-landing-in-2019/

as well as this article...
http://phys.org/news/2015-04-japan-moon-mission-space-agency.html

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China Wants To Build A Lunar Base On The Far Side Of The Moon 

photo credit: An illustration of the far side of the moon and Earth in the distance. NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio.

In the early 1970s, future Apollo 17 astronaut Jack Schmitt strongly petitioned NASA to land the Apollo 17 mission on the far side of the moon, ultimately to no avail. His argument was that it would have provided unique science on a fascinating region of the lunar surface, but NASA deemed it too risky for a manned mission at the time.

Now, more than 40 years later, China is planning to achieve this goal in 2018 or 2019, albeit with an unmanned lander and rover, by becoming the first nation to land on the far side of the moon – and they want it to be a stepping stone to eventually having a manned lunar base on the surface.

The stationary lander and rover will jointly be called Chang’e 4, a successor to the Chang’e 3 mission, which touched down on 14 December 2013. This was the first soft-landing on the Moon since the Soviet Union’s Luna 24 in 1976. The European Space Agency (ESA) may play a role in the mission, but it's unsure what yet.

With it, Chang’e 3 carried the Yutu rover, which remained operational on the surface for a few days before running into complications. According to a presentation submitted to the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, China will be hoping to build on this rover technology for the next mission. “[The] Chang’e 4 probe, lander and rover [will] have the same technical status with the Chang’e 3,” they said, but “exploration will be redesigned” and “the payload will be reconfigured.”

 
China's Yutu rover, pictured, landed on the Moon on 14 December 2013. CNSA/CCTV.

 

The lander will be accompanied by an orbiting relay satellite in the Earth–Moon Lagrange point 2 (L2) position, into which China sent a test spacecraft last year. For a mission to the far side of the Moon, this is crucial, as the Moon is tidally locked to Earth and the far side never comes into view. This means that all communications must be done via a relay satellite like this.

This was one of the reasons Schmitt was so keen for a mission here. It would have tested how astronauts would cope communicating with Earth in such a manner, which is likely to be necessary on future manned Mars missions.

Perhaps with this in mind, China added in their proposal that the Chang’e 4 mission would serve as “experimental verification for [a] lunar base”. The lunar far side is appealing for a manned base, as some key science could be performed here. For example, as Earth is constantly out of view, the far side is shielded from radio interference on Earth. This means that a radio telescope could have a much clearer view of the universe.

In addition, there are also some features of interest on the far side, such as the South Pole-Aitken basin, while the L2 point has also been considered as a location for a “gateway space station” for manned missions further into the Solar System.

China has made no secret of its desire to cooperate with other nations in space. It is already hoping to be allowed to dock at the International Space Station (ISS) in future, it may be involved in a future Mars mission and now it is considering partnering with ESA for lunar missions. ESA itself has proposed building a “lunar village” recently.

Cooperation with China has been complicated by US space policy, which prohibits NASA from working with the Chinese Space Agency (CNSA) in any way, and thus other countries have been reticent to do so. Perhaps this latest development could represent a thawing of tensions, and lead us closer to a desirable future in which international cooperation among all nations in space is the norm.

 http://www.iflscience.com/china-wants-land-moons-far-side-first-time-and-build-lunar-base

India has expressed an interest in landing a probe as well.........

(Mission 1, a development mission. M2 in 2024)

https://ispace-inc.com/news-en/?p=3939

HAKUTO-R M1 slipped

Date:  December 1, 2022

Time: 0337 Eastern (08:37 UT)

Pad: LC-40

Booster recovery: LZ-1

Fairing recovery: SpaceX Ship Doug

The UAE Rashid rover will carry payloads for the French space agency

CRS-26 MISSION

SpaceX is targeting Tuesday, November 22 for Falcon 9’s launch of Dragon’s 26th Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-26) mission to the International Space Station from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The instantaneous launch window is at 3:54 p.m. ET (20:54 UTC), and a backup launch opportunity is available on Saturday, November 26 at 2:20 p.m. ET (19:20 UTC), pending range approval.

Following stage separation, Falcon 9’s first stage will land on the Just Read the Instructions droneship in the Atlantic Ocean. This is the first flight of the Dragon spacecraft supporting this mission.

Dragon will autonomously dock with the space station on Wednesday, November 23 at approximately 6:30 a.m. ET (11:30 UTC).