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October 6, 2006
NASA Seeks Undergrads to Experiment in Lunar and Zero Gravity
NASA is calling on college undergraduates interested in performing reduced gravity experiments onboard the agency's "Weightless Wonder" aircraft to submit proposals by Monday, October 30, 2006.
July 28, 2006
NASA Awards Launch Services for Lunar Mission
NASA announced the award of launch services for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission to Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services Inc. of Littleton, Colo. The total cost of launch services for NASA, which includes spacecraft processing, and associated mission integration services such as telemetry support and mission-unique items is $136.2 million dollars.
July 6, 2006
In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) Test Facilities
The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to obtain information on the capabilities of facilities outside of NASA that may be especially suited to modeling the conditions of the lunar environment. By this RFI, the ISRU Facility Team is seeking information regarding the capabilities and past performance of facilities as they relate to simulation of the lunar environment, including the potential for handling large amounts of simulated lunar regolith.
June 5, 2006
NASA Announces Distribution of Constellation Work
NASA announced Monday agency center responsibilities associated with the Constellation Program for robotic and human moon and Mars exploration. This distribution of work across NASA's centers reflects the agency's intention to productively use personnel, facilities and resources from across the agency to accomplish the Vision for Space Exploration.
May 25, 2006
Lunar Lander Concept Studies
The purpose of this Request For Information (RFI) is to widely release the study guidelines that NASA in-house teams are using so that contractors, academia, or any interested parties can perform parallel studies and/or use this information to make decisions on how to focus their internal efforts. NASA will review all submitted concepts and may incorporate all or part of any concept into their planning for future studies.
May 9, 2006
NASA Agrees to Cooperate With India on Lunar Mission
NASA will have two scientific instruments on India's maiden voyage to the moon. Tuesday, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin and his counterpart, Indian Space Research Organization Chairman G. Madhavan Nair, signed two Memoranda of Understanding in Bangalore, India, for cooperation on India's Chandrayaan-1 mission.
May 5, 2006
NASA Announces Lunar Lander Analog Competition Agreement
NASA's Deputy Administrator Shana Dale announced Friday the agency's Centennial Challenges program has signed an agreement with the X PRIZE Foundation to conduct the $2 million Lunar Lander Analog Challenge.
May 5, 2006
NASA's New Planetary Drill is a 60-Watt Time Tunnel
Geologists, biologists and archaeologists for years have used core samples to look back in time, tunneling through layers of soil and stone to study history. NASA engineers are taking this veteran technique into the future with a design that can bore into other planets using just a light bulb's worth of power. This month they will drill more than six feet deep into the tundra of the Canadian Arctic with a futuristic tool that is a cross between an oil rig and a portable household drill, making it ideal for space exploration.
April 11, 2006
NASA Solicits Ideas for Exploration of the Moon
NASA issued a Request for Information soliciting ideas on lunar exploration activities that could be pursued as part of the agency's long term exploration goals for the Moon, Mars and beyond.
April 10, 2006
NASA Choose New Spacecraft to Search for Water on the Moon
NASA will send a second spacecraft to the Moon with the launch of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, scheduled for October 2008. The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite will travel independent of the orbiter to search for water ice
February 17, 2006
LRO Team Passes Preliminary Design Review
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter team recently passed it Preliminary Design Review heralding the start of the mission confirmation process.
October 21, 2005
Call to Academia for Innovative Concepts and Technologies for Lunar Exploration
October 19, 2005
NASA World Wind and The Moon
NASA World Wind version 1.3.3 now has the ability to browse Clementine moon data with full 3D terrain.
October 5, 2005
Lunar Constants and Models Document
The primary purpose of this document is to provide a single source for the constants and models to be used in the trajectory and navigation design of missions whose objective is to orbit or land on the Moon. A secondary objective is to provide the mission analyst with some basic background information about the Moon, its orbit, and the previous missions that have explored the Moon. As a result, this document contains more information than the typical constants and models document. Some of the data are required for mission studies while other data are simply provided for "educational purposes".
October 3, 2005
MoonROx
The Florida Space Research Institute and NASA's Centennial Challenges program are sponsoring the MoonROx challenge to advance the state-of-the-art in oxygen production from lunar regolith. This competition will feature a $250,000 prize for a team that demonstrates a capability to extract 2.5 kilograms of oxygen from a regolith simulant (JSC-1a) within an four hour period. A head-to-head competition, planned for the summer of 2006, will determine the winner.
September 30, 2005
NASA Selects Team to Build Lunar Lander
NASA's Deputy Associate Administrator for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate Doug Cooke today announced the selection of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala, and Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., to lead a team in the development of a lunar lander spacecraft. September 22, 2005
How We'll Get Back to the Moon
Before the end of the next decade, NASA astronauts will again explore the surface of the moon. And this time, we're going to stay, building outposts and paving the way for eventual journeys to Mars and beyond. There are echoes of the iconic images of the past, but it won't be your grandfather's moon shot.
June 8, 2005
Detection of Calcium on the Moon
During the Lunar commissioning phase, SMART-1's payload already produced interesting science results. Taking advantage of a solar flare, the D-CIXS instrument detected the calcium element on the lunar surface from its X-ray fluoresence.
April 14, 2005
SMART-1 Search for Lunar Peaks of Eternal Light
February 15, 2005
SMART-1 Mission Extension Approved
The SMART-1 mission has been extended for an extra year of lunar operations and will now end in August 2006. Among other opportunities, this extension will allow for an increased global coverage by the different dedicated science instruments.
 February 9, 2005
Ryder Crater
IAU provisional name
Moon Location: 44.5S, 143.2E
Diameter: 17.0 km
Origin: Graham Ryder, United Kingdom-born American geologist (1949–2002) LPI Staff Scientist
Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature
February 2, 2005
NASA Selects Moon Mapper for Mission of Opportunity
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