Focus on the Moon: 11th European Lunar Symposium in Padua, CAPSTONE One-Year Observation

11th European Lunar Symposium to take place June 27-29 at Polo Multifunzionale di Psicologia in Padua, Italy with five major themes: “Science of the Moon,” “Science on the Moon,” “Science from the Moon,” “Future lunar missions,” and “Lunar In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU),” along with 62 posters. Event co-sponsored by Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI), with participants from NASA, ESA, ASI, ISRO, UAE, KIGAM, ISA, JAXA. Topics to include Moon as Observation and Communication Platform, with Parcec by Lockheed Martin subsidiary Crescent Space, ESA Lunar Pathfinder Network of Communications, and NASA ShadowCam onboard Korea Aerospace Research Institute Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter satellite with Dawoon Jung, Korea Aerospace Research Institute. Other topics include Astronomy and Astrophysics from Moon by ESA Scientist Bernard Foing, and Advances in Lunar Exploration Concepts in Europe. Trent Martin and Ben Bussey of Intuitive Machines, Jack Burns University of Colorado to speak on Commercial Lunar Payloads. Ian Crawford from University of London, Angela Stickle of Johns Hopkins University will also speak. Event to coincide with lunar orbiter CAPSTONE (Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment) marking one year in space. A 12-unit CubeSat, Capstone’s main mission to pave way for Lunar Gateway, an in-planning stage space station by NASA, ESA, CSA-ASC among others in conjunction with Artemis program. (Image Credits: AAS Nova, Wikipedia, Johns Hopkins University, Intuitive Machines)

MONDAY 

☆ Jun 26 — International Space Station, ~415-km LEO: Expedition 69 seven-member crew working with final procedures for SpaceX Dragon CRS-28 before undocking this week (return payload capacity ≤ 3,000 kg), also working with breathing, blood pressure, hearing experiments.

☆ Jun 26 — Tiangong Space Station, ~390-km LEO: Shenzhou 16 three-member crew monitoring exterior mounted 13-sample box radiation biology payload set to aid future human Moon missions.

☾ = Moon activity

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

Euclid Space Observatory to Probe Fundamental Structure and History of Universe

The 2nd medium-class mission of ESA Cosmic Vision 2015–2025 program (4th overall), Euclid seeks to map 1.5 billion galaxies in space and time (redshift z ≤ 2, or 10 billion years) while measuring dark matter and energy and is set to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 from SLC-40 at CCSFS on July 1. The Euclid (named after Euclid of Alexandria, author of Elements) spacecraft is 4.7 m tall / 3.7 m in diameter / 2,160 kg and consists of service (Thales Alenia) and payload (Airbus) modules. The Euclid Consortium includes 2,000+ scientists from 300 research institutions in 16 countries. Science instruments Visible-Wavelength Camera (VIS), with 36 CCD sensors providing ~600-megapixel resolution and Near-Infrared Spectrometer and Photometer (NISP), with 16 Hawaii 2RG sensors were developed in collaboration with Max Planck Institute for Astronomy and will be paired with 1.2 m telescope. Euclid will spend 30 days on cruise to Sun-Earth Lagrangian point L2 (~1.5 million km, or 4 LD), where the 6-year nominal mission surveying ~ half of the extragalactic (non-Milky Way) sky will be conducted from a Lissajous orbit. Weak Gravitational Lensing and Baryonic Acoustic Oscillations are techniques which will be utilized to characterize dark matter and dark energy (thought to hold together via gravity and cause expansion of the universe), which complimented by Planck mission high-redshift data, may lead to reformulation of the standard model of cosmology, Lambda-CDM. (Image Credits: ESA, Thales, Airbus, SpaceX)

o Jun 26 — AAC Clyde Space, Online / Uppsala, Sweden: Extraordinary General Meeting for Shareholders; 13:00 CEST.

● Jun 26-29 — NSMMS, CRASTE, Tucson AZ: National Space & Missile Materials Symposium (NSMMS) / Commercial and Government Responsive Access to Space Technology Exchange (CRASTE).

o Jun 26 – Aug 25 — International Space University, ESA, Netherlands Space Office, Delft University of Technology, Leiden University, São José dos Campos, Brazil: 35th ISU Space Studies Program (SSP 2023).

☆ Jun 26 — Apollo Asteroid  2023 ME1: Near-Earth Flyby (0.032 AU).

Continued From…

● Jun 12 – Aug 12 — Institute for Scientist & Engineer Educators at University of California Observatories, University of Hawai’i, Hilo HI: Akamai Internship Program 2023.

TUESDAY 

★ Jun 27 — Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS), Sun-Synchronous Orbit: NASA observation satellite investigating the physical conditions of the chromosphere of Sun reaches 10 full reaches / enters 11th year in space, launched 2013.

☆ Jun 27 — Roscosmos, Launch Soyuz 2.1b / Meteor-M no. 2-3 / PHI-Demo, Site 1S,Vostochny Cosmodrome, Russia: Meteor-M meteorological satellite with MBRSC / UNOOSA Payload Hosting Initiative demo, 11:34 UTC.

★ Jun 27 — Virgin Galactic, Launch VMS Eve / VSS Unity, Spaceport America NM: 4-day launch window opens for Galactic 01, first Virgin Galactic commercial spaceflight, to carry 3 crewmembers from Italian Air Force and National Research Council of Italy.

● Jun 27 — The Space Show, Online / Las Vegas NV: Dr. David Livingston hosts Gary Barnhard of National Space Society Director of Strategic Relationships.

● Jun 27-28 — NASA, Washington DC: Moon to Mars Architecture Workshop.

o Jun 27-29 — The Open University, NASA Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI), Padua, Italy: 11th European Lunar Symposium (ELS) 2023; at Polo Multifunzionale di Psicologia.

☆ Jun 27 — Moon: 2.75° NNE of Spica, 13:00.

☆ Jun 27 — Mercury: At perihelion, 0.3075 AU from Sun, 09:00; 0.08° SE of M35 cluster, 17:00.

☆ Jun 27 — Apollo Asteroid  2023 MS2: Near-Earth Flyby (0.025 AU).

☆ Jun 27 — Apollo Asteroid  2023 MO2: Near-Earth Flyby (0.037 AU).