Our moon and other moons – SpacePolicyOnline.com

A number of announcements have been made this week about the exploration of our moon and the moons of Mars and the possible discovery of the first moon outside our solar system. The annual International Astronautical Congress in Bremen, Germany, hosts many of these announcements. Here is a quick summary.

Moon of the Earth

NASA is once again leading an effort to bring humans back to the surface of the moon. One difference this time is that he is looking for international and commercial partners. One of the first steps will be to partner with others to build and launch very small robotic orbits, landers and rovers on which NASA will purchase services. The concept is that NASA will only be one of the many customers of these services, so it's not necessary to build the space vehicle itself. Related ads today are:

• • Moon Express, an American company developing a robotic lunar device, has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) to explore opportunities for potential payloads and to promote opportunities for collaboration between Moon Express and the Canadian space industry. The CSA will be hosting Moon Express at the "Fall 2018 Industry Days" event on October 26, 2018, to promote the capabilities of the Canadian industry for Moon Express. CSA President Sylvain Laporte and Moon Express founder and CEO Bob Richards (who notes in the press release that he was born in Canada) signed the agreement in Bremen.

We are proud to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Canadian Space Agency for a lunar collaboration. @ IAC2018 @csa_asc @Bob_Richards https://t.co/EirVpgs2ud pic.twitter.com/AVCk7Uycer

– MOON ΞXPRΞSS (@MoonEx) October 3, 2018

• • Blue origin, founded and owned and funded by Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com, has signed a letter of intent with the German companies OHB SE and MT Aerospace associate with a joint mission on the lunar surface. Blue Origin is developing a lunar lander "Blue Moon" capable of carrying several tons of cargo on the lunar surface.
  • NASA and the Israeli Space Agency (ISA) signed a cooperative use agreement SpaceIL commercial lunar mission. SpaceIL is an Israeli non-profit organization that was one of the competitors of the Google Lunar XPrize (which ended because no one could meet the deadline even after several extensions). NASA will provide a network of laser retroreflectors that will facilitate ground tracking and provide the capabilities of its Deep Space Network to enable communication with the spacecraft. In return, ISA and SpaceIL will share data with NASA from an onboard lunar magnetometer. In addition, NASA's lunar reconnaissance orbiter will attempt to take scientific measurements of the SpaceIL lander landing on the Moon.

I am very happy to sign an agreement with @ILSpaceAgency aujourd & # 39; hui. The agreement covers cooperation between @NASA and @TeamSpaceILLunar mission. SpaceIL is landing the first Israeli spacecraft on the moon! https://t.co/tUfHaFzUJq pic.twitter.com/RIjjcQNCg4

– Jim Bridenstine (@JimBridenstine) October 3, 2018

NASA also announced today that the agency will hold "Moon to Mars" events in its various field centers across the country on October 24 to mark its preparations for the shipment. Humans first on the Moon, then on Mars. NASA's Jim Bridenstine will speak at the Kennedy Space Center at noon Eastern Time that day (which will be webcast).

Meanwhile, Lockheed Martin has revealed plans for a lunar lander with reusable crew. The company announced that it could accommodate four people and 2,000 pounds of freight and stay on the lunar surface for up to 4 weeks.

Moons of Mars

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the German space agency DLR and the French space agency CNES have announced their willingness to work together on the construction of a robotic lander for the MartX Moons eXploration (MMX) project of JAXA, which will study the two Maroon moons Phobos and Deimos and return samples from one of them.

The three space agencies are currently collaborating on the JAXA Hayabusa2 asteroid sample return mission. The MASCOT DLR / CNES lander detached from Hayabusa2 earlier in the day (Oct. 3 in Japan and Europe) and landed on the Ryugu asteroid. The agreement provides for DLR and CNES to build another mobile for MMX.

An "Exomoon"?

NASA announced today that it may have discovered the first moon surrounding a planet orbiting another star: an exoplanet. NASA's Kepler Space Telescope has discovered hundreds of exoplanets. Kepler 's data and NASA' s Hubble Space Telescope suggest that one of them, Kepler – 1625b, might have a moon – an "exomoon". Scientists can not say with certainty that it is a moon, but they call it "the simplest and most natural explanation is observed.

Last updated: Oct 03, 2018 at 11:34 pm ET