Artemis USA Return to Moon Activity Builds as Nation Reflects on Sacrifices of Space Pioneers

As the race to resume lunar exploration is set to begin in earnest this year with up to 3 orbital and 6 robotic landings possible, it is appropriate to commemorate those who have lost their lives in the pursuit of a future where humans may live off Earth. 3 anniversaries of such losses are near: on Jan 27, 55 years will have passed since Roger Chaffee, Virgil ‘Gus’ Grissom and Edward White perished by fire in the 1967 Apollo 1 (204) command and service module launch pad test. The following day will mark 36 years since Challenger STS-51L exploded 73 seconds after launch on Jan 28, 1986, killing Gregory Jarvis, ‘First Teacher in Space’ Christa McAuliffe, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnick, Francis ‘Dick’ Scobee and Michael Smith. Many tributes to the crew exist such as the Memorial Foundation for Ellison S. Onizuka and naming of craters within 524-km Apollo basin (itself within South Pole Aitken Basin) on the far side of the Moon. Feb 1 is the 19th anniversary of the reentry destruction of Columbia STS-107 which ended the lives of Michael Anderson, David Brown, ‘1st Indian American astronaut’ Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, Richard Husband, William McCool and ‘1st Israeli Astronaut’ Ilan Ramon. Ongoing remembrances include the naming of main belt asteroids 51824 Mikeanderson, 51825 Davidbrown, 51826 Kalpanachawla, 51827 Laurelclark, 51823 Rickhusband, 51829 Williemccool and 51828 Ilanramon. Ad Astra. (Image Credits: NASA)

MONDAY

Jan 24 — ISS, ~405-km LEO: Expedition 66 seven-member crew working on plant and material science experiments, utilizing Mochii miniature electron microscope, planning for spacewalks to modify Nauka module European Robotic Arm & airlock.

Jan 24 — Tiangong Space Station, ~370-km LEO: While Shenzhou 13 Taikonauts work in space, China planning to launch Wentian and Mengtian pressurized modules (each weighing >20 tons at launch), 2 Tianzhou cargo ships, 2 Shenzhou crew ships.

Lunar Community Planning Underway at MVA Architecture Workshop, 13th NASA LSSW on Inclusiveness

Moon Village Association is hosting Moon Village Architecture Workshop online from January 25-27 with support from IAA, D3, NSS, ISDC. MVA Architectural Concepts & Issues Working Group, led by (T-B) John Mankins & Yoshifumi Inatani with coordination by Madhu Thangavelu, integrates results from 4 other Working Groups: Standards, Human Factors, Mission & Market Requirements Data, Exploration Analogues. While looking toward 2025 and 2035 objectives, the WG most recent paper published is ‘The First Human Settlement on the Moon by 2045’. 4 sessions of the meeting will cover ISRU, Fabrication, Life Support, Reusable Transportation Systems, Power and others. LPI, USRA, NASA will host the 13th Lunar Surface Science Workshop: Inclusive Lunar Exploration Jan 26-27. With a goal to land the First Woman and Person of Color on the Moon, the age of Artemis inclusion will be explored by ~30 speakers with oversight by Kristen Bennett and Parvathy Prem. Some of talk titles are Relationships and Conflicts Between Indigenous Nations and Space Agencies; Bringing Lunar Science to the Deaf and Blind Communities; Who is Missing in Planetary Science?; and NextGen Lunar Exploration Ethics Panel Summary. On Jan 26 SpaceBase and New Zealand Space Agency are holding Beca Connect Webinar 1: Setting the Scene on Space. In less than 2 months, New Zealand may see Rocket Lab Electron launch of CAPSTONE to the Moon March 19 from Mahia Peninsula. (Image Credits: MVA, Xtend, JHUAPL, K.B. / Twitter, USC, ILOA Hawai’i, Rocket Lab)

Jan 24-27 – Planetary Science Institute, Columbia University, ESA-JAXA Bepicolombo Mission, Online: Mercury’s Surface Response to the Interplanetary Environment – Identifying Needed Studies in Laboratory Astrophysics.

Jan 24 — Moon: 5.0° NNE of Spica, 09:00.

Jan 24 — Amor Asteroid 2017 XC62: Near-Earth Flyby (0.048 AU)

Continued From…

Nov 4 – Jun 29 — Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Biomedical Problems, NASA Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA), Moscow, Russia: Mixed gender crew of 6 participating in 8-month space / lunar simulation mission SIRIUS-21 (Scientific International Research In Unique Terrestrial Station).

Dec 20 – Mar 4 — JAXA, Online / Tokyo, Japan: Accepting applications for Japan Astronaut Candidates.

NET Jan 15 — Astra, Launch Rocket 3 LV0009 / S4 Crossover, Pacific Spaceport Complex, Kodiak Island AK: Astra to launch S4 Crossover (attached to the second stage) technology demo mission by NearSpace Launch to obtain flight heritage testing for a prototype payload host platform.

Jan 23-27 – American Meteorological Society (AMS), Online / Houston TX: 102nd AMS Annual Meeting.

Jan 23-30 – CNRS, LPNHE, National Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS), La Thuile, Italy: 56th Rencontres de Moriond on Cosmology (Moriond 2022 Cosmology).

TUESDAY

Jan 25-26 – Business Bridge Europe, European Commission, Arianespace, OHB, CNES, ESA, et al, Brussels, Belgium: 14th European Space Conference.

Jan 25-27 – Moon Village Association, International Academy of Astronautics, Symposium on Building Blocks for Future Space Exploration and Development (D3), National Space Society / ISDC, Online: Moon Village Architecture Workshop.

Jan 25 — Moon: At last quarter, 03:42.