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.
Highlights…
o NewSpace: Rocket Lab to fly refurbished Rutherford engine during TBA Q3 Electron launch; Sierra Space teams with ILC Dover to produce Large Integrated Flexible Environment (LIFE) modules for commercial space stations; ALE of Japan plans Sky Canvas artificial meteor shower / atmosphere data collection 2025.
☆ Solar System: Mars moons Phobos and Deimos to undergo spectral analysis via MMX mission under US$650,000 NASA grant; JUICE systems / instrument checks ongoing while taking images en route to Jupiter; NASA Science Mission Directorate soliciting input on New Horizons potential to become heliospheric science probe.
☆ Galaxy: TESS continuing exoplanet search in 5th year, having now mapped 93% of the sky, generating 252 TB of full-frame images with 192 pixels / ea; New analysis of EHT data used to create first black hole image with PRIMO algorithm may cause re-assessment of M87* size estimated at 5,400,000-6,500,000 M☉.
● Hawai’i: Astrometric data from Gaia leads NAOJ scientists Thayne Currie and Julien Lozi to utilize Subaru SCExAO and CHARIS instruments to directly image exoplanet HIP 99770 b; applications open until May 15 for PISCES STARS (STEM Aerospace Research Scholars) program; Hōkū Keʻa teaching telescope approved to be decommissioned later this year.
● = Terrestrial and… o = International terrestrial events
☾ = 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.
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.
☆ 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.
☾ Apr 25 — Hakuto-R / ispace Mission 1,Lunar Landing: Carrying UAE Rashid 10-kg rover and 0.25-kg JAXA SORA-Q rover, Hakuto-R lander plans to touchdown on Moon nominally 16:40 UTC (06:40 HST); backup dates for landing are Apr 26, May 1 and May 3.
★ Apr 25 — SpaceX, Launch Falcon 9 / Starlink 3-5, SLC-4E, Vandenberg SFB CA: Falcon 9 rocket to launch next batch of Starlink communication satellites for SpaceX; first stage booster to land on drone ship in Pacific Ocean.
☆ Apr 25 — Apollo Asteroid 2023 GO1: Near-Earth Flyby (0.027 AU)
WEDNESDAY
★ Apr 26 — SpaceX, Launch Falcon Heavy / ViaSat 3 Americas,LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center FL: Falcon Heavy to launch ViaSat 3 Americas broadband communications satellite; two booster to land at Landing Zones 1 and 2; 07:24 EDT.
☆ Apr 26 — Apollo Asteroid 2023 GG1: Near-Earth Flyby (0.032 AU)
THURSDAY
☆ Apr 27 — Moon: At first quarter, 11:20; 4.0° NNE of Beehive Cluster, 13:00; at apogee (distance 404,311 km), 21:00.
FRIDAY
☆ Apr 28 — International Space Station, Expedition 69 U.S. EVA #86,~415-km LEO: Two Astronauts to perform ~6.5-hour spacewalk in Extravehicular Mobility Unit spacesuits to prepare cables outside ISS for future ISS Rollout Solar Array installations and retrieve S-Band communications equipment; live coverage available, starts 07:45 EDT.
★ Apr 28 — SpaceX, Launch Falcon 9 / O3b mPOWER 3 & 4, SLC-40, Cape Canaveral SFS FL: Falcon 9 rocket to launch two O3b mPOWER broadband internet satellites to Medium Earth Orbit for SES of Luxembourg; first stage booster to land on drone ship in Atlantic Ocean.
☆ Apr 28 — Apollo Asteroid 2021 JF2: Near-Earth Flyby (0.042 AU)
SATURDAY
☆ Apr 29 — Tiangong Space Station (TSS), ~390-kmLEO: Tianhe, first component of China TSS reaches 2 full years / enters 3rd year in Space, having launched on this day in 2021.
o Apr 29 — The Astronomical League,Global: Astronomy Day; astronomical societies, planetariums, museums, observatories sponsoring public viewing sessions, presentations, workshops.
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