Stories about opportunities and missions on the Moon.
The Trump administration’s first big change to the Artemis program is a plan to deliver a 100kw nuclear fission reactor to the lunar surface by 2030, with the job done almost entirely by the private sector.
The challenge of surviving and operating in deep space will be a relatively new one for the private sector.
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.
SpaceX is scheduled to perform an lunar orbit check-out a year after its first Moon landing—huh?
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.
A tangible example of Europe’s efforts to achieve technological independence at home—and on another world.
Officials said the lander failed to slow down enough for landing, likely crashing into the lunar surface, but the root problem is unclear.
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.
CEO Steve Altemus hopes to win new NASA Moon contracts in 2025.
The Trump administration’s proposed budget for NASA focuses on beating China back to the Moon and sending the first humans to Mars at the expense of every other part of the space agency’s budget.
It is scheduled to carry four astronauts around the Moon in early 2026.
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.
