jatan.space 🌙

Mission updatesBeautiful shot of the Long March 5 rocket housing the Chang’e 7 spacecraft, imaged around its first lunar launch attempt in August at Wenchang | Image: NARITThe launch of China’s Chang’e 7 mission, intending to systematically study water ice on the Moon, was first delayed from late August 2026 to September due to poor weather conditions from a tropical depression but later delayed entirely to early next year without CMSA stating any specific reason. Jack Congram notes that the…

China announced last month that it has demonstrated two-way optical laser communications between Earth and its DRO-A satellite, which was launched in 2024 and put in a stable Distant Retrograde Orbit (DRO). Earlier this year during NASA’s Artemis II mission, the Orion spacecraft demonstrated the same high-data-rate communications technology at 2.5 times DRO-A’s downlink speed of 100Mbps. The technology could be used by each country to get high quality streams of astronaut landings on the Moon…

Our Moon as seen by the Galileo spacecraft when it flew past on December 7, 1992. Image: NASAWhere did our Moon come from? The origin of Earth’s cosmic companion is a fundamental question in planetary science. From Galileo’s first telescopic observations of the Moon to humans walking on its surface, our understanding of its origins has come a long way. Yet it’s far from complete.Over the decades, scientists have proposed multiple hypotheses to attempt explaining how the Moon came to be. In this…

Unlike the millions of years it takes for most mountains on Earth to form, lunar mountains crop out near-instantly, geologically speaking.Mountains on our dear Earth primarily form when two colliding plates of Terra’s crust lift up volumes of rock, slowly creating an elevated landform. Over millions of years, wind, water, and gravity erode these uplifted sections, shaping their surface as the mountains we are familiar with today. But the Moon has no plate tectonics, atmosphere, or running…

First launch of Skyroot’s Vikram-1 rocket from ISRO’s Sriharikota launch complex. Images: Skyroot AerospaceThe successful launch of Skyroot Aerospace’s small Vikram-1 rocket on July 18, sans the mixed outcome for payloads, has been hailed as a revolutionary launch success for India by the company, ISRO, the Indian government, various media outlets, industry executives, and people at large. That it’s rare globally to achieve orbit on first attempt bolstered said outlook and emotion of Skyroot…

The global rush to the Moon this century is catalyzed in major part by the presence of water ice, soil rich in oxygen and metals, and other such resources. The long-term bet is that extracting resources in-situ on Luna, using oxygen and hydrogen as rocket fuel, and manufacturing things there itself will ultimately create an independent enough planetary economy that’s no longer completely dependent on Earth for at least the most basic supplies needed by humans and bots alike. Rockets and…

Craft launched from Luna, no tethercan go farther, fasterwhile being lighterExploring more worldswith joy and curiosityhosting ideas, deploying empathyand even skepticism for humanityFrom the edge of a gravitational wellthey can push the discourseand shape its courseAll of these futures can bloomwith the fervor and fragrance of you.Illustration of a rocket taking off from a Moonbase. Image: SpaceXPoem notes: Just like my poem The dawn of your light, this one was written to appreciate the…

Before we begin, I’m thrilled to share that Open Lunar Foundation is continuing as a sponsor of my Moon Monday blog+newsletter for the sixth year! 🌕Open Lunar is a US-based non-profit organization with a global team that develops bottom-up tools of lunar governance to enable and promote cooperative, peaceful, and sustainable exploration of our Moon by all countries.Disclaimer for transparency: I aid Open Lunar’s work with technical communications, and have newly joined their Lunar Ledger…

It wasn’t until 1959 that any being on Earth saw our Moon’s farside for the first time. Because the Moon is tidally locked to Earth, we only ever see its familiar nearside face. In the early days of space exploration, the Soviet Luna 3 and spacecraft succeeding it transmitted the first lunar farside images. While these captured images at low resolutions by today’s standards, the photos nevertheless revealed a far more cratered hemisphere than the Moon’s nearside. It looked more akin to Mercury…

<If you too want to change the frustrating misconception of people at large calling our Moon’s farside as its “dark side”, send them this rebuttal article by Ethan Siegel while also blaming Pink Floyd and the Transformers. The Moon does have real dark sides, and they’re called permanently shadowed regions.>Chang’e 4 lander on the farside of the Moon, as imaged by the Yutu 2 rover. Image: CNSAChina pioneered exploring our Moon’s mysterious farside with the Chang’e 4 and Chang’e 6 missions. Soil…

A montage of some asteroids and comets photographed up close by spacecraft. Image: The Planetary SocietyWhy explore asteroids, comets, and other small worldsWhen to worry about an asteroid hitting EarthPsyche, exploring a metal worldJapan wants to sample Mars’ moon Phobos with its MMX missionWeirdest types of moons in our Solar SystemRelated: Articles on moons other than our Moon Like my wri

Our Moon is a unique place to answer fundamental questions about our Solar System and also help enable sustained human presence in space. Over years, I’ve been writing accessible stories about the Moon’s said value for as broad an audience as I can. I’ve placed all that work together in context on this curated Moon page, along with several external resources, to provide a good entry point for people from all backgrounds to learn about our Moon and its specific themes, and evangelize its…

In 2021, the United Nations proclaimed July 20th as International Moon Day, via the resolution 76/76 on “international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space”. Some key goals of the day are to promote awareness about our Moon’s unique scientific and cultural importance as well as how countries worldwide are exploring it. To that end, I present a curated webpage of linked, free resources for people from all backgrounds to learn about our Moon as well as dive into specific exploration…

I’m very much a Moon person but I’ve written a bit about Mars over the years as well, highlighting a few key aspects about the red planet’s exploration which I thought aren’t discussed as much or in detail.NASA explores MarsA comparison of three generations of NASA Mars rovers. These are flight-spares inside NASA JPL's Mars Yard testing area. The Sojourner rover’s twin is front and center, a Mars Exploration Rover spare is on the left, and the Curiosity twin is on the right. Image: NASA /…

We may have gone to the Moon before but we have been to its south pole. There’s a big difference. The south polar environment is far harsher than the near-equatorial or mid-latitude sites where Apollo astronauts and most robotic missions have landed. At the lunar poles, the slopes are far steeper, Sun and Earth visibility for power and communications respectively more limited, temperatures inside water-hosting permanently shadowed regions crossing into cryogenic realms, and smooth enough…

Welcome to a linked rundown of global developments in the exploration of our Moon across the first half of 2026. There’s also a section on global outlook because we must not forget our interconnectedness and collective action needs over sovereign interests. Each linked article below explains and contextualizes said development. As usual, I make a conscious effort to curate events and trends that actually happened instead of amplifying speculative coverage of upcoming events that may or may not…

Announcement before we begin: I’m excited to welcome PierSight as a returning sponsor of my independent space writing for another year! 🌙Ahmedabad-based PierSight is building a constellation of SAR satellites equipped with AIS sensors for persistent, all-weather ocean studies and monitoring. With $8 million raised in funds, and being co-selected to build India’s first public-private Earth observation constellation, PierSight is targeting a Q1 2027 launch for its first commercial satellite. The…

The Apollo 14 Lunar Module, with its 7° tilt apparent in the picture. The onboard astronauts looked out the module’s window often to ensure it was not tipping over. Image: NASA / David HarlandFor NASA to safely land 12 astronauts on the Moon with the Apollo missions, a lot had to go right. But before it could even attempt Apollo, the agency needed to know what our Moon is like up close. Worrying about the basic nature of the lunar surface and soil may sound mundane now but it was a big unknown…

The Artemis III crew on the announcement day. Image: NASA / Robert MarkowitzOn June 9, NASA announced an all-male crew for the upcoming Artemis III mission, which aims to dock the crew’s Orion spacecraft with prototype lunar landers from Blue Origin and SpaceX in low Earth orbit to test several key systems and reduce risks ahead of a crewed Moon landing attempt with Artemis IV. The Artemis III crew comprises three NASA astronauts and one from ESA:Randy Bresnik, commanderESA astronaut Luca…

This article is Part 5 of my ongoing series on India’s launch vehicle crisis. A space program can only move as swiftly and flexibly as its orbital rockets, and India has been amid a grinding halt. As such, I’ve been focusing my Indian Space Progress blog & newsletter on fully exploring this situation before resuming coverage of national space activities at large.Part 1 of the article series reviewed the state of India’s orbital launch vehicles, revealing a bleak picture of ambitious goals…

The Chandrayaan 3 lander on the Moon imaged by the mission’s rover Pragyan. Image: ISROIndia’s Chandrayaan program is one of the few in the world dedicated to the exploration of our Moon. Starting with its discovery of lunar water that catalyzed the global Moon rush of today, the program has gotten media and creator attention worldwide. However, the coverage has often lacked the program’s specific scientific, technological, and geopolitical outcomes being laid out and contextualized against…

Following NASA’s Artemis rejig, catalyzed Moonbase plans, and the crewed Artemis II lunar flyby earlier this year, the agency has been trying to go full speed in its grand plans for returning US astronauts to the Moon alongside placing of long duration infrastructure. It’s to that latter end that on May 26, the agency took another necessary step by announcing firm, fixed price contracts being awarded to teams led by Astrolab (a Moon Monday sponsor) and Lunar Outpost respectively for building…

First launch of SpaceX’s Starship V3 launch vehicle. Image: SpaceXSpaceX’s latest suborbital test flight of its two-stage Starship rocket on May 22, debuting a refined V3 version, was successful in its liftoff, stage separation, mock satellite deployment test, and the upper stage’s soft oceanic splashdown while its heat shield remained intact through atmospheric reentry. However, the flight failed in even attempting a soft splashdown of the large booster, which impacted somewhere unstated in…

India’s Chandrayaan 3 lunar landing at the near-polar location of 69.37°S, 32.32°E in August 2023 marked a key moment for the country’s space program. Its nominal touchdown also maintained the momentum for the world’s march to the Moon. A year later, ISRO finally made available a set of peer-reviewed Chandrayaan 3 payload data online on its portal, accessible by anyone after free registration. ISRO has made its planetary missions data portal compliant with NASA’s Planetary Data System (PDS).…

Artemis updatesThe bulk of the SLS rocket core stage for the Artemis III mission is seen here arriving at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. I love the scale of the image being so apparent with people and cars around. Image: NASA / Glenn BensonScience communicator Hank Green made this interactive website of photos spread across the timeline of the Artemis II lunar mission and flyby.Among the technological checkpoints passed by Artemis II, the NASA-MIT-developed optical laser communications…

Left: Venus as it would approximately look to the human eye, imaged by NASA’s Mariner 10 spacecraft (full globe view), Right: Radar image (false-color) of Venus’ surface taken by NASA’s Magellan orbiter (full globe view)Why explore VenusVERITAS, NASA’s Venus mapperEnVision, Europe’s mission to VenusISRO’s plan to study Venus in unprecedented detail alongside NASA and ESARelated: Coverage of India’s exploration of Mars

A composite of images of Jupiter and its four largest moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. Europa is about the same size as our Moon whereas Ganymede is bigger than the planet Mercury. Image: ESARecipes to make moonsWeirdest types of moons in the Solar SystemWhen will we explore Saturn’s moon Enceladus to find alien life?Water plumes from Saturn’s icy moon may show promising signs of lifeIs life possible on rogue planets and moons?Missions:Japan wants to sample Mars’ moon Phobos with its…

Graphic: Jatan Mehta | Individual images of the Launch Vehicle Mark III (LVM3) rocket, the two Chandrayaan 4 spacecraft stacks, and the Moon’s south pole: ISRO / NASA / GSFC / Timothy McClanahan / LOLAAnnouncement before we begin: I’m excited to welcome Catalyx Space as a returning sponsor of my independent space writing! 🌗Having raised $5.4 million in seed funding, Catalyx is building fully integrated autonomous labs and re-entry capsules for microgravity and in-space manufacturing studies.…

Graphic: Jatan Mehta | Individual images of the LVM3 rocket, the two Chandrayaan 4 spacecraft stacks, and the Moon’s south pole: ISRO / NASA / GSFC / Timothy McClanahan / LOLAChandrayaan 4 will bring unique Moon materials—and maybe a giant scientific leap for India The case for India and China to exchange lunar samples 🌜..<>..🌛Chandrayaan 5 LUPEX mission will drill for water on the Moon and aid ArtemisISRO’s Chandrayaan and Gaganyaan programs will converge at LunaISRO revealed an N

Top left: The Chandrayaan 3 rover rolling out of the lander’s ramp during pre-launch testing; Bottom left: The co-added spectrum from all 23 lunar surface soil and rock measurements by the rover’s X-ray spectrometer; Right: An artist’s concept of our Moon shortly after its formation, with a magma ocean and a newly forming rocky crust. Images: ISRO / Santosh Vadawale, et al. / NASA GoddardHow Chandrayaan 3 contributed insights on our Moon’s origin and evolutionResults from Chandrayaan 3 thermal…