November 7-13, 2022 / Vol 41, No 45 / Hawai`i Island, USA

NASA Moon Rocket Artemis 1 and ispace Lunar Lander Prepare for Launch as Capstone and Danuri Near Orbit

Artemis 1 (SLS rocket + Orion crew capsule) is on Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center, Florida undergoing final checks including flight termination system readiness ahead of November 14 launch window opening 00:07 EST (Nov 13 @ 19:07 HST), with backups Nov 16 at 1:04 and Nov 19 at 1:45. The first of a series of missions to reestablish human activity on the Moon, culminating in sustained surface and cislunar outposts from which to explore deep into the Solar System, Artemis 1 is to travel over 2,000,000 km over the nominal 25.5-day mission. Orion is to perform a 100-km lunar flyby before settling into a distant (70,000 km) retrograde orbit and returning to Earth with a scorching 2,760°C atmospheric reentry at 11 km/s. Also at KSC awaiting launch opportunity NET Nov 22, ispace Mission 1 lunar lander is to depart LC-39A for a 3-4 month ballistic lunar transfer, landing within Lacus Somniorum carrying payloads from UAE (Rashid rover), Canada (Mission Control AI flight computer, Canadensys 360° cameras) and Japan (NGK solid state battery, JAXA spheroid rover). NASA Lunar Flashlight water-seeking orbiter is also ridesharing on the same SpaceX Falcon 9 launch. Meanwhile, NASA STMD / Advanced Space Capstone orbiter to perform 2 additional trajectory correction maneuvers despite 1 of 8 thrusters remaining stuck open, before lunar DRHO insertion on Nov 13. KARI Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter ‘Danuri’, also following low energy path to Moon, set to arrive Dec 17. (Image Credits: KARI, ispace, NASA)

MONDAY

☆ Nov 7 — ISS, ~415-km LEO: Expedition 68 seven-member crew expecting to work with Cygnus NG-18 SS Sally Ride and its 3,700 kg of cargo; Commander Prokopyev and Cosmonaut Petelin training in Orlan spacesuits for upcoming EVA.

☆ Nov 7 — Tiangong Space Station, ~390-km LEO: Newly-arrived Mengtian module to unfurl its 55-meter long solar panels while docked to Tianhe forward port; Shenzhou 14 three-member crew prepare for Tianzhou-5 cargo ship.

o = International terrestrial events in local time.

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

Moon Village Association and National Space Society Partner for November Annual Meetings in Los Angeles

Moon Village Association and National Space Society are holding 6th Global Moon Village Workshop & Symposium (November 8-10) and 7th Space Settlement Summit (Nov 10-11), sharing Los Angeles Sheraton Gateway Hotel. The 2022 MVA conference will be electrified by Artemis 1 on the launch pad, and its role in inaugurating International Moon Day every July 20. Some of the 9 featured speakers are Giuseppe Reibaldi, John Mankins, Michelle Hanlon, Madhu Thangavelu, and Yoshifumi Inatani. There will be 4 plenaries, 2 break-out sessions, 2 evening receptions, and a banquet luncheon including announcements. MVA Lunar Commerce and Economics Working Group is launching a model of its 2-year project ‘Lunar Commerce Portfolio’ Nov 9 being “the definitive authority source for lunar commerce opportunities”. The following day, NSS will open the 7th Space Settlement Summit, an invitation-only event “to identify critical issues that need to be resolved along the path to space settlement”. There will be 5 Sessions: Biosphere II with moderator Anita Gale, Lunar Settlement with John Mankins, Military Space with Peter Garretson, Space Finance moderated with Scott Livingston, and Ames Summer Study Retrospective with Mark Hopkins. The NSS Dare to Dream Gala – Celebrating the New Space Age will be Nov 11. Apollo 11 Astronaut Buzz Aldrin will be among those speaking at the dinner, which will fund programs for STEM / space opportunities. (Image Credits: MVA, NSS, NASA, Don Davis, SPC, ILOA Hawai’i)

● Nov 7 — NASA, Online / Washington DC: Pre-proposal teleconference on Collaborations for Commercial Space Capabilities (CCSC-2), under which major USA National Space Policy objectives are to be advanced by industry via Space Act Agreements.

● Nov 7-9 — Venus Exploration Analysis Group (VEXAG), NASA, Hybrid / Albuquerque NM and Online: VEXAG 20th Meeting.

o Nov 7-10 — International Academy of Astronautics, ESA, Brasilia, Brazil: 3rd IAA Latin American Symposium on Small Satellites and 5th IAA Latin American CubeSat Workshop.

o Nov 7-11 — Australian Space Agency, Deloitte, Explor, Government of New South Wales, University of Technology Sydney, et al, Hybrid / Sydney, Australia and Online: 4th Annual International Humans in Space Summit 2022; discussing women in space, lunar biology, human spaceflight, space tech, governance, more.

o Nov 7-11 — ESA, Noordwijk, Netherlands: Exploration of Asteroids Symposium; European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC).

o Nov 7-13 — Royal Astronomical Society, University of Edinburgh School of Geosciences, Edinburgh & Stirlingshire, United Kingdom: Forming and Exploring Habitable Worlds.

☆ Nov 7 — Apollo Asteroid 2022 US6: Near-Earth Flyby (0.024 AU)

Continued From…

★ Jun 28 – Nov 13 — CAPSTONE, Near-Rectilinear Halo Orbit Trajectory: Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment heading to operating position at NRHO / cislunar space.

☆ Aug 4 – Dec 16 — Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO), Lunar Trajectory: South Korea ‘Danuri’ to search for lunar resources & test technologies; performing 3 highly elliptical Earth orbits to initiate a trans-lunar injection and arrive at 100-km lunar orbit.

o Aug 8 – Nov 11 — IAU Office for Astronomy Outreach, NAOJ, NARIT, Online / Global: NameExoWorlds 2022; naming the first exoplanet targets of James Webb Space Telescope.

● Nov 1-14 — Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, Online / Orlando FL: 2022 ASF Fall Online Auction.