April 24-30, 2023 / Vol 42, No 17 / Hawai`i Island, USA

Success of ispace Moon Landing April 25 Would Be 1st Luna Touchdown for Japan and Commercial Space

Hakuto-R Mission 1 lunar lander is set for April 25 touchdown in Atlas Crater (47.5°N, 44.4°E) at 16:40 UTC about 135 days since its launch. Alternative landing dates and sites are Lacus Somniorum, Sinus Iridium and Oceanus Procellarum on April 26, May 1 or May 3. If successful, ispace will accomplish the significant first independent lunar landing and first for Japan. JAXA Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) mission is tentatively set for August launch. About 1-hour before soft landing, ~1,000-kg Hakuto-R will fire its main propulsion system to decelerate from 100-km orbit. 30 minutes after landing it will aim to establish its power and X-band communication systems to support ~30 kg of public and private payloads including UAE Rashid 10-kg rover and 8-cm diameter sphere, 0.25-kg JAXA SORA-Q rover. The lander is planned to retrieve regolith – ownership of which will be transferred to NASA. ispace, founded in 2010, now has an estimated 200 employees aiding its goal to develop a cislunar ecosystem. Flight model build for Mission 2 (NET 2024) is starting in Germany. The mission will advance lunar transportation & data services, and collect lunar regolith with its microrover. As a design agent and subcontractor, Mission 3 lander (NET 2025) under Draper US$73M NASA CLPS contract will carry AstronetX lunar camera, Aviv Labs greenhouse experiment, CesiumAstro communications / and other payloads. (Image Credits: ispace)

MONDAY

☆ Apr 24 — International Space Station, ~415-km LEO: Expedition 69 seven-member crew planning 2 EVAs this week to relocate hardware and prepare cables for solar arrays; connecting with students for 9 minutes at a time via Ham Radio.

☆ Apr 24 — Tiangong Space Station, ~390-km LEO: Shenzhou-15 three-member crew stowing equipment after final EVA for crew, working with Tianzhou 5 cargo before planned May ship departure.

☾ = Moon activity

★ = Space and… ☆ = International space / astro events in Hawaii Standard Time unless noted. Add 10 hours to obtain UT (‘Universal Time’).

Space Tourism Conference Gathering Orbital / Lunar Exploration, Entertainment, Hospitality Communities

With theme Expanding the Space Experience Economy, Space Tourism Conference 2023 is set to bring high profile figures within the emerging industry for a 1-day event at Renaissance Hotel LAX being held April 28, in commemoration of the launch of Soyuz TM-32 carrying first space tourist, Dennis Tito, to ISS April 30, 2001. Registration and an invite-only social mixer will be held April 27, while the conference proper will open with session ‘Designing Space Places: Luxury Meets Practicality’ featuring Axiom consultant Marie-Lise Baron, Colonize Mars blockchain game creator Hunter Stanchak and John Spencer, who founded the Space Tourism Society in 1996 – 19 chapters now exists in USA, Malaysia, South Korea, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Nigeria, Iran and other countries. Health, safety and wellness, resource extraction / manufacturing, cuisine, the overview effect, sustainability, marketing, sports, media and space-themed experiences on Earth will be focus of panel discussions throughout the day. Looking forward, private space travel is likely to provide economic impetus to human activity in space, with a slew of commercial space stations in the works: Blue Origin and Sierra Space Orbital Reef, Nanoracks and Voyager Space Starlab and a Cygnus-based station by Northrop Grumman are being developed with $415.6M NASA funding while Vast, Orbital Assembly and others are making wholly independent efforts at creating private human habitats in space. (Image Credits: STS, SpaceX)

☆ Apr 24 — Hubble Space Telescope, LEO: Spacecraft with 2.4-meter diameter main telescope begins 34th year in space today, launched Apr 24, 1990; could continue operations until 2040s.

o Apr 24 — People’s Republic of China: National Day of Space Flight 2023; commemorating the launch of China’s first satellite, Dongfanghong-1 on April 24, 1970.

● Apr 24 — Ad Astra Kansas Day: Initiated in 2003 to promote public awareness of the importance of science & technology to Kansas’ growth; marked for Hubble Space Telescope launch, released by Kansas Astronaut Steve Hawley from Space Shuttle Discovery robotic arm the following day.

● Apr 24-25 — Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium (LSIC), Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab, Laurel MD: LSIC Spring Meeting 2023; featuring NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy.

● Apr 24-27 — Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, San Luis Obispo CA: CubeSat Developers Workshop 2023: Building the Future of Space Together.

☆ Apr 24 — Moon: 3.6° N of M35 cluster, 14:00.

☆ Apr 24 — Amor Asteroid 2023 GU2: Near-Earth Flyby (0.049 AU)

Continued From…

● Oct 15 – Jun 15, 2023 — International Space Elevator Consortium, Online: Space Elevator Academic Challenge: Improving Humanity’s Future; for students 17-25.

● Jan 18 – May 11 — Wichita State University, Wichita KS and Online: 2023 Interstellar Seminar ‘LASI 150G’; 1-credit hour seminar begins today; every Wednesday 14:30-15:20, led by Prof. Mark Schneegurt.

o Feb 24 – May 24 — National Museum of China, Beijing, China: Exhibit Featuring China’s Human, Lunar and Space Program.

o Apr 22-27 — Deep Space Exploration Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China, CNSA, Hefei, Anhui Province, China: 2023 International Conference of Deep Space Sciences; one of the activities conducted during 2023 Space Day of China.

o Apr 23-28 — EGU, Hybrid / Vienna, Austria and Online: European Geoscience Union General Assembly 2023.

TUESDAY

☆ Apr 25 — International Space Station, Expedition 69 Russia EVA #57, ~415-km LEO: Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin to transfer and install a heat-rejecting radiator and an experiment airlock to Nauka during ~6.5-hour spacewalk in Orlan spacesuits; live coverage available, starts 17:15 EDT.