Moon Society Lunar Missions Update - #1, April 2004

The past few months have seen greatly increased attention to the Moon, accompanied by an upsurge in mission proposals and announcements. One trigger seems to have been China's success with their first Shenzhou manned mission, and subsequent publicity from Luan Enjie and Ouyang Ziyuan, respectively director of China's space agency (CNSA) and chief scientist of China's lunar programs. China's plans for a lunar program have gradually trickled out over the past couple of years, but only recently in much detail. The Chang'e program as now proposed will consist of three robotic phases: orbiter (launching December 2006), lander (by 2010), and sample return (before 2020), followed by a human landing in 2020. News reports recently announced a robotic rover as one mission in the lander phase, scheduled for 2012.

Chang'e-1 is proposed as a two-ton science mission, orbiting the Moon for 12 months. It will be taking 3-D lunar images, measuring soil properties, and generally exploring the lunar environment. Cost is estimated at $170 million. Chinese officials have explicitly discussed both science and the use of lunar resources as justifications for their interest in the Moon, but it's not clear exactly what lunar resources they have in mind, or for what purpose they would be used.

Not to be outdone, India's space program has also announced lunar mission plans. Chandrayaan-1 will mass 525 kg, with a proposed lunar polar orbit of 100 km, launching in 2007 or 2008 and operating for 2 years. Science experiments already planned include developing a more complete model of lunar gravity through orbital mechanics and laser ranging, making a 3D surface map, and searching for sub-surface polar ice. The Chandrayaan mission will also carry 10 kg worth of science experiments developed outside the Indian space program; proposals have already been received from the US and several other countries. ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair has explicitly mentioned the potential for use of helium-3, so resources are an issue for India too.

The big news for Americans interested in space was President Bush's vision statement on space exploration in January 2004. Based on almost a year's review after the Columbia accident, with input from a number of grassroots sources and likely influenced by China's successes and announcements, the new plan puts the Moon squarely in the nation's space planning for the first time in over 30 years. The Aldridge commission, formed as part of the new plan, is currently reviewing a wide variety of concerns and projections about our future in space to try to turn this vision into a sustainable reality. It's not supposed to be exclusively a NASA program.

Given the go-ahead from the president, the first NASA-originated lunar mission since Apollo 17 was quickly proposed: a Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter developed by the Goddard center for launch in 2008. The intent is to apply techniques from terrestrial remote sensing to the Moon. Identification of indigenous resources is an explicit goal; additionally the orbiter is intended to locate safe future landing sites particularly in the polar regions, via laser and radar probes. The orbiter is proposed to be followed by a lander in 2009, and a subsequent series of robotic missions leading up to a human landing between 2015 and 2020.

All of the NASA plans are still subject to review by Congress; the money may never actually be allocated. But it's not that much so far - NASA is still planning to spend about 10 times as much on Mars missions as on the Moon over the next 3-4 years.

Along with all the recent Moon chatter, we actually have a mission in progress right now. ESA's Smart-1 launched last September 27, and is using a solar electric (ion) engine to slowly spiral away from Earth; the orbital simulation at the ESA website is fascinating to watch. As of April 7th the spacecraft was flying its 264th orbit with a period of almost 31 hours and maximum Earth distance almost 80,000 km (50,000 miles). Capture by the Moon should happen in late 2004, with the spacecraft in a final orbit by February 2005. Total mission cost was 110 million euros, with a mass of about 350 kg. Less than half the experiments on board are directly related to the Moon; these include a multispectal visual imager and infrared and x-ray instruments to map out lunar mineral locations and possibly look for water ice.

Japan's long-delayed Lunar-A mission, most recently scheduled for launch the summer of 2004, was delayed until 2005 in recent weeks reportedly due to thruster valve defects. Lunar-A is a small orbiter carrying two penetrators. The larger Selene mission has been pushed back to 2006, due to recent problems with the H-2A rocket.

Among private lunar mission plans, one entrant that recently made news was Orbital Development's "Moon Crash" proposal, offered for sale on auction site e-Bay. For $6 million (or the winning bid, if higher) this would send a 10 kg payload to the Moon on an impact trajectory; launch would be in 2006 or later.

TransOrbital's CEO, Dennis Laurie, recently projected high confidence that the Traiblazer orbiter would finally launch in October or Novemeber of 2004. In addition to the primary photographic mission, this microspacecraft (100 kg fueled at geosynchronous orbit) is accepting cargo from scientists, other businesses, and the general public, for transit to lunar orbit and eventual crash landing on the surface.

LunaCorp's SuperSat is proposed to be put together on the International Space Station. Launch is now projected for 2005, but Shuttle and ISS delays may push that back or require new plans. SuperSat's main goal is demonstrating broad-band deep-space data transmission; 25 Mbps. Solar electric propulsion and HDTV and panospheric video broadcasts make this a commercial larger-sized version of Smart-1.

In the background here are various floated plans for human bases and settlements. Humorously capturing the Zeitgeist, Google (the search engine company) released an April 1st announcement of job openings at its "Copernicus Center", starting in late spring 2007. None of the national space agencies have put forth anything much more believable yet, but it's only a matter of time.

Links:

• SMART-1 update: http://sci.esa.int/smart/.
• Reports on China's plans: http://www.spacedaily.com/news/china-03zzf.html, http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/china_moon_040322.html.
• Report on India's plans: http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/india_moon_030819.html
• New US space vision: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/01/20040114-1.html
• Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter: http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/moon_goddard_040213.html
• Moon Crash: http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/04/09/moon.toss/.