Lunar
Stories about commercial, civil, and international missions on and around the Moon.
LH3M Wins Five Patents for Lunar Helium-3 Extraction
Lunar Helium-3 Mining, LLC (LH3M) secured its fifth US patent last month, covering the company’s end-to-end architecture for He-3 detection, extraction, and refinement on the Moon.
ispace Blames Faulty Hardware for Failed Lunar Landing
A two-and-a-half week internal investigation revealed that the lander’s Laser Range Finder (LRF) was likely to blame for the high-speed collision with the lunar surface.
Venturi Space Unveils its All-European Rover
A tangible example of Europe’s efforts to achieve technological independence at home—and on another world.
Sierra Space Wins $3.6M NASA Lunar Logistics Contract
The contract—part of NASA’s NextSTEP-2 Appendix R set of studies—tasks Sierra Space with examining how it would upgrade its LEO space station technology to withstand the lunar environment, given the Moon’s sharp regolith and extra gravity.
Intuitive Machines Says The Moon Is Still Go
CEO Steve Altemus hopes to win new NASA Moon contracts in 2025.
Zeno Power Raises $50M Series B
Zeno’s technology uses the heat emitted from nuclear waste—an isotope called Strontium-90—to power systems in extreme environments where solar cells and batteries fail.
Interlune Unveils Prototype Lunar Helium-3 Excavator
Space resources startup Interlune announced yesterday that its first customers are ready to buy its Moon-mined Helium-3.
Start Your Engines: The Lunar Rover Race Has Begun
Payload spoke with several companies building next-gen lunar rovers—including Astrolab, ispace, Intuitive Machines, and Lunar Outpost—about the biggest challenges and opportunities in this sector.
China Shares Moon Rocks, Steps Up Space Collaboration
China announced that it will share lunar samples with international researchers and fly other nations’ payloads aboard future Moon and Mars missions—a giant leap for Beijing’s space diplomacy efforts.
DARPA Eyes Orbital Mission to Map Lunar Water Ice
The program—Lunar Assay via Small Satellite Orbiter (LASSO)—seeks to design, test, build and deliver a spacecraft that can identify regions that are at least 90% probable to have at least 5% water.
Lunar Cubesat Constellation to Search for Ancient Cosmic Signal
Blue Skies Space, a UK-based startup, will design a Moon-orbiting cubesat constellation to search for the oldest signal from the ancient universe.
Voyager’s Dust-Repellent Coating Tested On the Moon
Voyager Technologies’ Clear Dust Repellent Coating (CDRC) is a passive, electricity-free technology designed to keep lunar regolith off equipment.
Lunar Startup CEOs Push For ‘CLPS 2.0’
CEOs asked lawmakers to support block buys in CLPS 2.0 to give industry the opportunity to purchase materials in advance, providing certainty in both the supply chain and the workforce.
