Author Topic: Next Moon flight (Read 42331 times)

Tom Schmidt · « **on:** 07/28/2020 09:40 am »

Hello,

sorry for disturbing, but does anyone know, when the next moon flight is planned? By which country?

Thanks for support!

Shyrakeso · « **Reply #1 on:** 07/28/2020 10:13 am »

China is launching Chang'e 5, a lunar sample return mission on November 24th. c:

https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=33431.0

Twark_Main · « **Reply #2 on:** 08/07/2020 06:18 pm »

Wow, the first lunar sample return since 1976! Thanks for the heads-up.

Forrest White · « **Reply #3 on:** 12/03/2020 09:29 am »

NASA Administrator stated that the program is planning an unmanned orbital mission called Artemis 1 for 2020 - as usual, it is delayed. In 2022 they planned the manned mission Artemis 2 which will move around the Moon. Finally, in 2024, a mission called Artemis-3 will take place, which will bring astronauts to the lunar surface, including the world's first woman.

Phil Stooke · « **Reply #4 on:** 12/05/2020 03:30 am »

The next Moon flight will probably be CAPSTONE, launched by Rocket Lab, probably in about April. The following one will presumably be Astrobotic's lander in the summer, and then Intuitive Machines at the end of the year. India's Chandrayaan 3 is probably going to be in 2022 rather than 2021, and I expect the same of Russia's Luna 25, but I could be wrong.

Phil Stooke · « **Reply #5 on:** 09/26/2021 09:05 pm »

Interesting to read that post from the perspective of September 2021.

CAPSTONE is still probably the next mission to the Moon - too bad we don't hear more about specific plans. After that... it looks like a toss-up between Artemis-1 and its cubesat flotilla, and Intuitive Machines IM-1. The first - who can say but I will guess January. The second - supposed to be launched in February. Next, possibly, Luna 25 or Japan's SLIM, mid-year some time. Moving into the fall, maybe Astrobotic's first Peregrine mission and ispace's Hakuto-R mission 1 (the Japanese ispace, not the Chinese one). Late in the year, Intuitive's IM-2 mission to the south pole and Chandrayaan 3, though the latter may slip into the following year.

It's going to get busy.

TrevorMonty · « **Reply #6 on:** 09/26/2021 11:50 pm »

Capstone has been delayed by NZ covid lockdown. Hopefully flies before end of year.

Sent from my SM-G570Y using Tapatalk

Phil Stooke · « **Reply #7 on:** 10/13/2021 07:18 am »

Now it's moved into February. Which is the next Moon flight? Could be a tight race between Capstone, Intuitive Machines IM-1 and Artemis 1 with its set of cubesats.

jdon759 · « **Reply #8 on:** 10/13/2021 07:44 am »

Quote from: Phil Stooke on 10/13/2021 07:18 am

Now it's moved into February. Which is the next Moon flight? Could be a tight race between Capstone, Intuitive Machines IM-1 and Artemis 1 with its set of cubesats.

Oooh, another race! SS v SLS to orbit, and now IM-1 v Artemis-1 v CAPSTONE to Luna! Having so many things all at once is fun.

Phil Stooke · « **Reply #9 on:** 11/17/2021 09:08 pm »

Updates... well, maybe Artemis 1 will be pushed back a bit into the summer, and it looks like CAPSTONE will be pushed back too, so that makes IM-1 the next lunar flight. Intuitive is doing pretty well these days - just awarded a third CLPS mission to Reiner Gamma. Let's hope they land successfully.

Phil Stooke · « **Reply #10 on:** 01/18/2022 05:26 pm »

Capstone (or rather, CAPSTONE) is now set for launch on March 19th. IM-1 is supposed to be in Q1 this year but I don't see any sign that the spacecraft is at the launch site being readied for a February launch so I will guess it goes up in March. Any information gratefully received! And Artemis 1 probably in April. Still bunched together as we head into he final straight.

Phil Stooke · « **Reply #11 on:** 01/27/2022 04:26 pm »

Today Intuitive Machines announced a delay of IM-1 to an unspecified date later this year. It looks like CAPSTONE will be the next lunar mission, then probably Artemis 1 if no snags next month.

Phil Stooke · « **Reply #12 on:** 10/13/2022 07:15 pm »

How time flies! And we still don't know the answer to our question about the next launch to the Moon. Right now it looks like a race between ispace's HAKUTO-R Mission 1 (Falcon 9 launch) or Artemis 1, both looking at mid-November. Intuitive Machines and Astrobotic seem to be battling it out for 3rd place in about March, with suggestions that Chandrayaan 3 and Japan's SLIM would be not far behind. But many changes are still possible.

Vahe231991 · « **Reply #13 on:** 05/07/2023 03:11 am »

Quote from: Phil Stooke on 10/13/2022 07:15 pm

How time flies! And we still don't know the answer to our question about the next launch to the Moon. Right now it looks like a race between ispace's HAKUTO-R Mission 1 (Falcon 9 launch) or Artemis 1, both looking at mid-November. Intuitive Machines and Astrobotic seem to be battling it out for 3rd place in about March, with suggestions that Chandrayaan 3 and Japan's SLIM would be not far behind. But many changes are still possible.

The Artemis 1 mission launched last November, and the HAKUTO-R mission launched in December 2022. The IM-1 mission might be the next lunar mission to launch, followed by the Chandrayaan-3 and Peregrine.

Phil Stooke · « **Reply #14 on:** 05/10/2023 09:09 pm »

There have been suggestions that Chandrayaan 3 will slip to 2024 (and that it will not, so hard to be sure). Anyway, I would add Japan's SLIM to the list of summer launches, and Russia seems to be aiming for summer 2023 for Luna 25 as well.

EDIT: Looks like this summer is still the plan despite some earlier rumours of a delay. So the summer months could be busy with Intuitive, Astrobotic, India, Japan and Russia all going in the same few months.

Vahe231991 · « **Reply #15 on:** 05/10/2023 11:32 pm »

Quote from: Phil Stooke on 05/10/2023 09:09 pm

There have been suggestions that Chandrayaan 3 will slip to 2024 (and that it will not, so hard to be sure). Anyway, I would add Japan's SLIM to the list of summer launches, and Russia seems to be aiming for summer 2023 for Luna 25 as well.

EDIT: Looks like this summer is still the plan despite some earlier rumours of a delay. So the summer months could be busy with Intuitive, Astrobotic, India, Japan and Russia all going in the same few months.

The Chandrayaan 3 and Luna 25 missions are now scheduled to launch in July of this year, while the SLIM mission is planned to launch in August, so either the Chandrayaan 3 or Luna 25 will launch first.

Links:
https://www.dnaindia.com/science/report-chandrayaan-3-isro-s-moon-mission-to-be-launched-in-july-know-all-about-new-aditya-l1-first-mission-to-sun-3040773
https://spaceflightnow.com/2023/04/11/japanese-space-science-missions-facing-delays-after-h3-rocket-failure/

Phil Stooke · « **Reply #16 on:** 05/12/2023 02:50 am »

It's not easy to keep up with all these missions. Today we have this release from Intuitive Machines:

https://investors.intuitivemachines.com/node/7376/pdf

It's a financial report but it includes a statement that the launch of IM-1 will be in the 3rd quarter of this year. July-September. So it goes back a bit down the list now.

turbopumpfeedback2 · « **Reply #17 on:** 05/12/2023 08:57 pm »

I agree, it is not easy to keep track of the lunar missions. Around 2007-2009 period missions were well organized on Wikipedia. Now even on the lunar lander company sites there is not much info.

Landing a robotic mission on a lunar pole will be the most important robotic mission of the decade, and yet IM-1 was shifted from non-polar region to a lunar pole a bit under the radar ...

And overall the recent lunar missions were weird, apart from Chang'e 3. Chang'e 4 return some weird photos of a plant on the far side of the Moon inside of what looked like a very cheap plastic container. Then Chang'e 5 returned samples but that is the last we heard of it ... I was hoping they would share some with other countries. And then the sequence of crashes from Israel, India, and now Japan. It is the Moon we are talking about not Mars. It is supposed to be much less demanding. They probably did not even test the landing sensors here on Earth from a helicopter or a drone ...

And then the weird Starship based lunar lander ... geez ... that whole Starship bussiness may end up like Wardenclyffe Tower, a.k.a free energy for all, in this case cheap space for common people.

I am still perplexed that nobody tries to use lunar water or at least make a decent effort to try to land at the poles and take some water samples. LCROSS detection of water was 14 years ago. Still there are no sampling missions of the ice.

IM1 is the big hope to at least open the door to the poles. Please test you landing systems thoroughly in realistic situations here on Earth including the blown dust and plasma from the exhaust. I am getting tired of crashes in the last 500 meters of the surface.

Ok that was my rant :-)

Zed_Noir · « **Reply #18 on:** 05/13/2023 08:58 am »

Quote from: turbopumpfeedback2 on 05/12/2023 08:57 pm

<snip>
..... And then the weird Starship based lunar lander .....
<snip>
I am still perplexed that nobody tries to use lunar water or at least make a decent effort to try to land at the poles and take some water samples. LCROSS detection of water was 14 years ago. Still there are no sampling missions of the ice.

IM1 is the big hope to at least open the door to the poles. Please test you landing systems thoroughly in realistic situations here on Earth including the blown dust and plasma from the exhaust. I am getting tired of crashes in the last 500 meters of the surface.
<snip>

Landing on the Lunar polar regions is hard!

I give IM-1 less than a 33% chance of landing intact on the Lunar regolith.

The lander with the highest probability of landing intact on one of the Lunar Polar regions is the Shiny Monstrosity from Hawthorne. Someone who can regularly landed a booster on a floating platform in the middle of the ocean, should be able to do a landing on the Lunar surface better than someone who have no practice landing a rocket. We shall see in a few of years if said Shiny Monstrosity will stand tall on the Lunar surface with the HLS demo mission.

turbopumpfeedback2 · « **Reply #19 on:** 05/13/2023 11:40 am »

Quote from: Zed_Noir on 05/13/2023 08:58 am

... Someone who can regularly landed a booster on a floating platform in the middle of the ocean, should be able to do a landing on the Lunar surface better than someone who have no practice landing a rocket. ...

Great point!

Phil Stooke · « **Reply #20 on:** 05/14/2023 09:09 pm »

"Chang'e 4 return some weird photos of a plant on the far side of the Moon inside of what looked like a very cheap plastic container. Then Chang'e 5 returned samples but that is the last we heard of it ... I was hoping they would share some with other countries."

This is a completely unfair characterization of China's lunar program. The science journals are full of articles based on Chang'e 4 and 5 results. Scientists from many countries including the USA and Europe have been parts of teams analyzing these results. As I understand it, we will soon be seeing invitations from other countries to obtain samples from CE5 for analysis. It's not surprising that Cbinese PIs would get the first go at it.

"I am still perplexed that nobody tries to use lunar water or at least make a decent effort to try to land at the poles and take some water samples."

VIPER will be doing that (if all goes well), not to mention IM-2 and others of the current crop of landers. Not to mention the recent attempts, all sadly failed, to do studies from low orbits - Flashlight, LunaH-map, IceCube. People are working on it. Your statement is another unfair characterization.

laszlo · « **Reply #21 on:** 05/15/2023 11:14 am »

Quote from: turbopumpfeedback2 on 05/13/2023 11:40 am

Quote from: Zed_Noir on 05/13/2023 08:58 am

... Someone who can regularly landed a booster on a floating platform in the middle of the ocean, should be able to do a landing on the Lunar surface better than someone who have no practice landing a rocket. ...

Great point!

Irrelevant point, The only similarity is a rocket descending engine first toward a surface.

F9 Landing:
1. Solid landing pad
2. High-g planet
3. Atmosphere to to help with the steering (gridfins) as well as slowing the vehicle down (air resistance)
4. Starting from sub-orbital altitude and velocities
5. GPS aided
6. Landing within 10 minutes of launch after a thorough pre-flight checkout

Lunar Landing:
1. Land in dirt kicking dust, soil and rocks everywhere
2. Low-g body
3. Vacuum
4. Starting from orbital altitude and velocities or even direct from trans-lunar
5. No in-place nav aids
6. Minimum of a multi-day trans-lunar coast after launch

Phil Stooke · « **Reply #22 on:** 05/31/2023 06:23 am »

Returning to the question of the next Moon flight... the situation changes every week. We just learned that Luna 25 is delayed a month.

This is my current and highly speculative list of possible dates. Probably push every thing back a month or two and it might be right! But these are the dates that are being discussed.

July??? Astrobotic
July Chandrayaan 3
August Luna 25
August SLIM
September Intuitive IM-1
early next year Intuitive IM-2

Lampyridae · « **Reply #23 on:** 05/31/2023 09:16 am »

Quote from: Phil Stooke on 05/14/2023 09:09 pm

"Chang'e 4 return some weird photos of a plant on the far side of the Moon inside of what looked like a very cheap plastic container. Then Chang'e 5 returned samples but that is the last we heard of it ... I was hoping they would share some with other countries."

This is a completely unfair characterization of China's lunar program. The science journals are full of articles based on Chang'e 4 and 5 results. Scientists from many countries including the USA and Europe have been parts of teams analyzing these results. As I understand it, we will soon be seeing invitations from other countries to obtain samples from CE5 for analysis. It's not surprising that Cbinese PIs would get the first go at it.

"I am still perplexed that nobody tries to use lunar water or at least make a decent effort to try to land at the poles and take some water samples."

VIPER will be doing that (if all goes well), not to mention IM-2 and others of the current crop of landers. Not to mention the recent attempts, all sadly failed, to do studies from low orbits - Flashlight, LunaH-map, IceCube. People are working on it. Your statement is another unfair characterization.

The ice reserve at the lunar poles may well be much larger and much harder to extract than previously believed. Until recently the assumption based on interpretation of the remote sensing data was that the ice was loosely mixed in the upper surface in some form, having gathered there *after* the formation of the craters. Newer models suggest that the volatiles were placed during the first few hundred million years. The older craters with the thickest ice deposits will likely have been blanketed several times with ejecta from the newer ones (Cannon et al., 2020). The ejecta blankets will also have disrupted the ice deposits, resulting in them being thinner and less homogeneous (Udovicic et al., 2022).

The only way to know for sure is to go and look, with something like VIPER. It'll probably take a crewed mission with a rover to really get a firm idea, eg Artemis V in ~2029 Elon Time.

Vahe231991 · « **Reply #24 on:** 06/01/2023 04:08 pm »

Quote from: Phil Stooke on 05/31/2023 06:23 am

Returning to the question of the next Moon flight... the situation changes every week. We just learned that Luna 25 is delayed a month.

This is my current and highly speculative list of possible dates. Probably push every thing back a month or two and it might be right! But these are the dates that are being discussed.

July??? Astrobotic
July Chandrayaan 3
August Luna 25
August SLIM
September Intuitive IM-1
early next year Intuitive IM-2

The Chandrayaan 3 mission is now scheduled to launch on July 12:
https://idrw.org/chandrayaan-3-to-be-launched-on-july-12/

turbopumpfeedback2 · « **Reply #25 on:** 06/15/2023 07:53 pm »

There is also a list on a NASA page: https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/planets/moonpage.html

They give the future missions as:

Future Missions

Peregrine Mission 1 - NASA CLPS Lunar Lander (2023)
Luna 25 - Roscosmos (Russia) Lunar Lander (2023)
IM-1 - NASA CLPS Lunar Lander (2023)
SLIM - JAXA (Japan) Lunar Lander (2023)
Prime 1 - NASA CLPS Lunar Lander (2023)
Cislunar Explorers - NASA Technology Test CubeSats (TBD)
Masten Mission 1 - NASA CLPS Lunar Lander (2023)
Griffin Mission 1 - VIPER - NASA Lunar South Pole Rover (2024)
Lunar Trailblazer - NASA Lunar Orbiting Small Satellite (2024)
Intuitive Machines 3 - NASA Lunar Lander and Rovers (2024)
Chang'e 6 - CNSA (China) Lunar Sample Return Mission (2024)
Chang'e 7 - CNSA (China) Lunar Survey Mission (2026)
Chang'e 8 - CNSA (China) Lunar Technology Test Mission (TBD)

Quite surprising they don't mention Chandrayaan-3.

But the last change of the page is: "Last updated: 13 December 2022"

The page has some nice info about payload for the Astrobotic mission.

turbopumpfeedback2 · « **Reply #26 on:** 06/15/2023 08:04 pm »

Info about Astrobotic first mission from the link above:

Peregrine Mission 1 (TO2-AB)NSSDCA ID: PEREGRN-1

Description

Launch of Peregrine Mission 1 is no longer targeted for its planned May 4 date due to anomalies found in tests of the Vulcan Centaur launch vehicle. A new launch date will be announced once the launch vehicle investigation is completed.

Peregrine Mission 1 (TO2-AB), or the Peregrine Lunar Lander, carrying scientific and other payloads to the Moon, is planned to touch down on the lunar surface on Sinus Viscositatis. The scientific objectives of the mission are to study the lunar exosphere, thermal properties and hydrogen abundance of the lunar regolith, magnetic fields, and the radiation environment. It will also test advanced solar arrays. Peregrine Mission 1 was selected through NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, in which NASA contracts with a commercial partner, in this case Astrobotic, that provides the launch and lander.

Spacecraft and Subsystems

Peregrine Mission 1 is about 1.9 m high and roughly 2.5 m across. It is a box-shaped main body sitting on four landing legs. The main structural landing bus is composed of aluminum isogrid shear panels and aluminum honeycomb mounting surfaces with one primary deck divided into four parts. Propulsion is provided by five ISE-100 667-N thrusters mounted on the bottom of the lander. They use a hypergolic system of Mono-Methyl Hydrazine (MMH) fuel and dinitrogen tetroxide/nitrogen dioxide, 25% Mixed Oxides of Nitrogen (MON-25) oxidizer. Four sets of three 45-N attitude control thrusters maintain orientation. Attitude knowledge is provided by Sun and star trackers, inertial measurement, and Doppler radio and LIDAR, with the landing sensors mounted on the bottom of the bus.

Power (at 28 V, max. 480 W) is generated by GaInP/GaAs/Ge triple junction solar cells mounted on the top of the lander on a 1.8 square meter panel, and is stored in lithium-ion batteries with a capacity of 840 Whr. Communications (X-band downlink, S-band uplink) are via a medium gain, low-gain, and WLAN antennas. Thermal control is achieved by radiators and multi-layer insulation blankets.

The mission will carry about 10 payloads of various types, the lander has a payload mass capacity of 90 kg. The scientific payload includes the Laser Retro-Reflector Array (LRA), Linear Energy Transfer Spectrometer (LETS), Near-Infrared Volatile Spectrometer System (NIRVSS), PROSPECT Ion-Trap Mass Spectrometer (PITMS), and Neutron Spectrometer System (NSS). Five other science payloads were originally planned for Peregrine Mission 1, but are being reallocated to other future lunar delivery missions. These are: Photovoltaic Investigation on Lunar Surface (PILS), Mass Spectrometer Observing Lunar Operations (MSolo), and Neutron Measurements at the Lunar Surface (NMLS), Fluxgate Magnetometer (MAG), and Surface Exosphere Alterations by Landers (SEAL).

Mission Profile

Launch will take place from Cape Canaveral, Florida on a United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur rocket in the VC2S configuration, with 2 GEM-63XL solid boosters, a standard short faring, and two RL10 engines in the Centaur upper stage. The launch was scheduled for 4 May, but has been delayed while an investigation into anomalies found during testing of the launch vehicle are being investigated. After a 3 to 33 day Earth orbit and cruise to the Moon, followed by a 4 to 25 day lunar orbit phase, it will descend and land in Sinus Viscositatis (Bay of Stickiness) adjacent to the Gruitheisen Domes on the northeast border of Oceanus Procellarum (Ocean of Storms). It is planned to land 55-110 hours after local sunrise and to operate for about 192 hours.

For more on NASA's CLPS initiative and missions, see:

DanClemmensen · « **Reply #27 on:** 06/15/2023 08:10 pm »

Quote from: turbopumpfeedback2 on 06/15/2023 08:04 pm

Launch of Peregrine Mission 1 is no longer targeted for its planned May 4 date due to anomalies found in tests of the Vulcan Centaur launch vehicle. A new launch date will be announced once the launch vehicle investigation is completed.

And ULA says that the first Vulcan flight (this flight) is NET Q4 2023.

turbopumpfeedback2 · « **Reply #28 on:** 06/15/2023 08:14 pm »

So it looks like next flight is Chandrayaan-3. The Wikipedia still says 12th July: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrayaan-3

Zed_Noir · « **Reply #29 on:** 06/16/2023 01:00 pm »

Quote from: turbopumpfeedback2 on 06/15/2023 07:53 pm

There is also a list on a NASA page: https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/planets/moonpage.html

They give the future missions as:

Future Missions

Peregrine Mission 1 - NASA CLPS Lunar Lander (2023)
Luna 25 - Roscosmos (Russia) Lunar Lander (2023)
IM-1 - NASA CLPS Lunar Lander (2023)
SLIM - JAXA (Japan) Lunar Lander (2023)
Prime 1 - NASA CLPS Lunar Lander (2023)
Cislunar Explorers - NASA Technology Test CubeSats (TBD)
~~Masten Mission 1 - NASA CLPS Lunar Lander (2023)~~
Griffin Mission 1 - VIPER - NASA Lunar South Pole Rover (2024)
Lunar Trailblazer - NASA Lunar Orbiting Small Satellite (2024)
Intuitive Machines 3 - NASA Lunar Lander and Rovers (2024)
Chang'e 6 - CNSA (China) Lunar Sample Return Mission (2024)
Chang'e 7 - CNSA (China) Lunar Survey Mission (2026)
Chang'e 8 - CNSA (China) Lunar Technology Test Mission (TBD)

<snip>

Masten Space Systems is defunct, declared chapter 11 bankruptcy. The assets of Masten was audition off on September 13, 2022 and acquired by Astrobotics.

Phil Stooke · « **Reply #30 on:** 06/19/2023 02:50 am »

I would not include Cislunar Explorers either. Sure, they MIGHT fly, but this was one of the Artemis 1 stable of cubesats which didn't make the launch date. Originally intended to fly a race with two others, but as only one launched there was no race, and it never accomplished anything (as far as one can tell from the deafening silence which enveloped the whole Artemis 1 cubesat endeavour) so there really is not much point, or likelihood in my view, that Cislunar Explorers will fly. It was a student-focused project from Cornell University. I do wish it well but one has to be realistic.

Anyway, Chandrayaan 3 looks like the most likely next lunar flight at the moment.

turbopumpfeedback2 · « **Reply #31 on:** 06/28/2023 08:00 pm »

Chandrayaan-3 launch window is July 12-19 says ISRO chief:

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/science/chandrayaan-3-launch-scheduled-for-july-13-isro/articleshow/101342875.cms

Also same dates on the NASA page: https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=CHANDRYN3

turbopumpfeedback2 · « **Reply #32 on:** 07/05/2023 08:16 pm »

Chandrayaan-3, launch date and time:

13 July 2023, 9:00 UTC

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrayaan-3
https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/chandrayaan-3-launch-scheduled-for-july-13-officials/article67019682.ece

turbopumpfeedback2 · « **Reply #33 on:** 07/14/2023 10:55 am »

Chandrayaan 3 launched.

Next up should be Luna 25 on August 10th according to wikipedia.

Vahe231991 · « **Reply #34 on:** 07/15/2023 07:53 pm »

Quote from: turbopumpfeedback2 on 07/14/2023 10:55 am

Chandrayaan 3 launched.

Next up should be Luna 25 on August 10th according to wikipedia.

The Luna 25 has been delivered to the Vostochny launch site in the Russian Far East to be mated with the Soyuz-2.1b launch vehicle for launch next month after so many delays:
https://aviationweek.com/defense-space/space/russias-luna-25-lunar-lander-arrives-vostochny-spaceport

ironnitride · « **Reply #35 on:** 07/16/2023 10:22 pm »

Quote from: turbopumpfeedback2 on 06/15/2023 07:53 pm

There is also a list on a NASA page: https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/planets/moonpage.html

They give the future missions as:

Future Missions

Peregrine Mission 1 - NASA CLPS Lunar Lander (2023)
Luna 25 - Roscosmos (Russia) Lunar Lander (2023)
IM-1 - NASA CLPS Lunar Lander (2023)
SLIM - JAXA (Japan) Lunar Lander (2023)
Prime 1 - NASA CLPS Lunar Lander (2023)
Cislunar Explorers - NASA Technology Test CubeSats (TBD)
Masten Mission 1 - NASA CLPS Lunar Lander (2023)
Griffin Mission 1 - VIPER - NASA Lunar South Pole Rover (2024)
Lunar Trailblazer - NASA Lunar Orbiting Small Satellite (2024)
Intuitive Machines 3 - NASA Lunar Lander and Rovers (2024)
Chang'e 6 - CNSA (China) Lunar Sample Return Mission (2024)
Chang'e 7 - CNSA (China) Lunar Survey Mission (2026)
Chang'e 8 - CNSA (China) Lunar Technology Test Mission (TBD)

That is a great list, would be worth adding ESA's Argonaut lander as well, for completeness.

link: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Exploration/Argonaut

From the website it seems to be a 10ton lander capable of landing "anywhere" on the lunar surface, launch date is not mentioned however.

https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Exploration/Terrae_Novae_Europe_s_exploration_vision

This link however says "Begin the design and development of Europe’s large lunar lander, Argonaut, a multi-mission delivery truck for scientific payloads, rovers and infrastructure that will support sustained human exploration throughout the 2030s and ensure the first European steps onto the Moon’s surface before 2030." So probably landing before the end of the decade!

Would be intresting to see how this falls in the Artemis plans.

Blue Moon lander also could be added tied to Artemis V (2029?).

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-selects-blue-origin-as-second-artemis-lunar-lander-provider

Vahe231991 · « **Reply #36 on:** 08/04/2023 12:11 am »

The SLIM lunar lander is scheduled to launch on August 26:
https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/12/jaxa_slim_xrism_august_launch/

Vahe231991 · « **Reply #37 on:** 08/04/2023 12:27 am »

The IM-1 lander is now scheduled for launch in late 2023:
https://nextspaceflight.com/launches/details/1915

Phil Stooke · « **Reply #38 on:** 08/07/2023 08:22 pm »

No earlier than December, so possibly late 2023. But note that the text also says the lander is going to Oceanus Procellarum, which as we know is not the case.

Vahe231991 · « **Reply #39 on:** 08/10/2023 11:55 pm »

The Luna 25 mission has finally launched after over two decades of development.

Link:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/10/science/russia-moon-launch.html

cryogenicvalve · « **Reply #40 on:** 08/11/2023 06:12 pm »

Next landing attempts:

1) Luna 25, August 20-23
2) Chandrayaan 3, August 23 12:17 UTC

https://www.hindustantimes.com/technology/meet-chandrayaan-3s-russian-competitor-luna-25-could-reach-moon-sooner-101691478510539.html

Vahe231991 · « **Reply #41 on:** 08/13/2023 12:44 am »

The IM-1 launch is tentatively scheduled for September 14.

https://www.spacetv.net/live/launch-of-spacex-falcon-9-with-doge-1-mission-to-the-moon/

Phil Stooke · « **Reply #42 on:** 08/13/2023 06:34 pm »

I would be very dubious about this. The article is much more about Doge-1 than IM-1 and IM's website doesn't mention the date. Doge-1 is - can I say 'stupid' on the internet? Well, here goes... it's stupid. When Intuitive announces a date we can take it seriously. I would expect somewhere around December at the earliest.

Vahe231991 · « **Reply #43 on:** 08/14/2023 11:29 pm »

Quote from: Phil Stooke on 08/13/2023 06:34 pm

I would be very dubious about this. The article is much more about Doge-1 than IM-1 and IM's website doesn't mention the date. Doge-1 is - can I say 'stupid' on the internet? Well, here goes... it's stupid. When Intuitive announces a date we can take it seriously. I would expect somewhere around December at the earliest.

Intuitive Machines now targeting November 15 for the launch of the IM-1 mission.

https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/1691180389933424642

Also, Eric Berger mentions on Twitter that the Peregrine mission has a target launch window of NET December.

https://twitter.com/SciGuySpace/status/1691188220707360768

cryogenicvalve · « **Reply #44 on:** 08/20/2023 09:30 am »

Next soft landing attempt: Chandrayaan 3, August 23 12:17 UTC

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrayaan-3
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66562629

Phil Stooke · « **Reply #45 on:** 11/09/2023 06:40 am »

It would appear that Astrobotic's lander will launch next - assuming no more holdups - currently aiming for 24 December. Next would be Intuitive Machines on 12 January, again assuming no more delays. If those are the launch dates the landings would actually happen close together, round about the 19th of January - and SLIM is also set to land at the same time. It is entirely possible that there will be three landing attempts in a single week. If we assume every landing happens about 2 days after sunrise (so descent imaging is not too complicated by shadows) they would occur in the order of increasing west longitude, i.e. SLIM, then Intuitive, then Astrobotic.

Emmettvonbrown · « **Reply #46 on:** 11/09/2023 05:39 pm »

Three lunar landings in a row... we are living through interesting times.

Phil Stooke · « **Reply #47 on:** 12/11/2023 11:24 pm »

Not quite so clear now. It looks like the Astrobotic launch is delayed to January 8, 2024, just a few days before Intuitive Machines. If Astrobotic follows the same kind of c. 30 day flight it had planned before, the landing is delayed, but if it follows a shorter path, as its payload users guide says it can, the landing might still happen on the 25th. At any rate the next landing attempt will be SLIM on Jan. 19 or 20th.

sdsds · « **Reply #48 on:** 12/19/2023 10:42 pm »

Quote from: Phil Stooke on 12/11/2023 11:24 pm

Not quite so clear now. It looks like the Astrobotic launch is delayed to January 8, 2024, just a few days before Intuitive Machines. If Astrobotic follows the same kind of c. 30 day flight it had planned before, the landing is delayed, but if it follows a shorter path, as its payload users guide says it can, the landing might still happen on the 25th. At any rate the next landing attempt will be SLIM on Jan. 19 or 20th.

Clearly the race is now SLIM's to win or lose, based on their landing success. With the IM-1 launch now "no earlier than mid-February 2024," who's next in line?

Phil Stooke · « **Reply #49 on:** 12/19/2023 10:59 pm »

Looks like the launch order would be Astrobotic on Jan. 8th and Intuitive mid-February. Both landings would be in the time around 20-23 February with Intuitive probably first because the sun rises first on their landing site.

Phil Stooke · « **Reply #50 on:** 01/05/2024 10:04 pm »

Next Moon flight after Astrobotic and Intuitive Machines looks like being China's Queqiao-2 relay satellite, February or March. After that, maybe Chang'e 6 in c. May and then Intuitive's second CLPS flight IF the first is successful. If it isn't there might be more delay.

Phil Stooke · « **Reply #51 on:** 03/11/2024 07:08 pm »

The above post still looks pretty good, amazingly. We do have dates, roughly 15 March for Queqiao 2 and May 2 for Chang'e 6. After that, where are we? IM-2 looks like going to very late in the year as lessons from IM-1 are applied. So maybe Firefly's CLPS mission will come in before it, but I haven't seen anything about its launch date. Also late in the year might be ispace's Hakuto-R Mission 2 (Resilience). But the order is not known, and I could well imagine most or all of those 3 going into 2025.

AndrewM · « **Reply #52 on:** 04/01/2024 11:42 pm »

Quote from: Phil Stooke on 03/11/2024 07:08 pm

The above post still looks pretty good, amazingly. We do have dates, roughly 15 March for Queqiao 2 and May 2 for Chang'e 6. After that, where are we? IM-2 looks like going to very late in the year as lessons from IM-1 are applied. So maybe Firefly's CLPS mission will come in before it, but I haven't seen anything about its launch date. Also late in the year might be ispace's Hakuto-R Mission 2 (Resilience). But the order is not known, and I could well imagine most or all of those 3 going into 2025.

As of November 2023, Blue Ghost was looking at Q3 2024. They were planning on narrowing down the launch month in May once environmental testing completes. Both IM-2 and Griffin Mission One (VIPER) are officially targeting November 2024. iSpace had said Winter 2024 so I'm thinking December 2024 since assembly was scheduled to complete this spring.

mandrewa · « **Reply #53 on:** 04/02/2024 12:00 am »

Here's my list:

[NET 2024-5]   Chang'e 6         China                --sample return
[NET 2024-9]   Blue Ghost M1 (RAC, LMS)   United States (Firefly Aerospace)
[NET 2024-10]   IM-2 (Prime-1)         United States (Intuitive Machines)
[NET 2024-11]   Griffin (VIPER)         United States (Astrobotic)
[NET 2024]   Hakuto-R 2         Japan (ispace)
[NET 2025-03]   Blue Moon Mark1 M-1      United States (Blue Origin)
[NET 2025]   IM-3 (Reiner Gamma)      United States (Intuitive Machines)
[NET 2025]    HLS Starship V1   (uncrewed)   United States (SpaceX)
[NET 2025]   Beresheet 2         Israel (SpaceIL)
[NET 2026]    Blue Moon Mark1 M-2      United States (Blue Origin)
[NET 2026-9]   Artemis 3 (HLS Starship V1)   United States (SpaceX)         --two astronauts
[NET 2026-6]   FLEX, HLS Starship V1      United States (Astrolab, SpaceX)   --Artemis 3 ?
[NET 2026]   ?, HLS Starship?      Australia, United States (SpaceX?)   --Artemis 3 ?
[NET 2026]   LUPEX            India, Japan (ISRO, JAXA)
[NET 2026]   APEX 1.0         United States (Draper, ispace)
[NET 2026]   Blue Ghost M2         United States (Firefly Aerospace)
[NET 2026]   Chang'e 7         China
[NET 2026]   Series 3 (Mission 6)      Japan (ispace)
[NET 2028]   Artemis 4 (HLS Starship V2)   United States (SpaceX)         --four astronauts
[NET 2028]   Blue Moon Mark2 M-1 (uncrewed)   United States (Blue Origin)
[NET 2028]   Chang'e 8         China
[NET 2028] Luna-27            Russian Federation
[NET 2030-3]   Artemis 5 (Blue Moon Mark2 M-2)   United States (Blue Origin)       --two astronauts
[NET 2030]   Argonaut         Europe
[NET 2030]   Artemis 6         United States (SpaceX)          --four astronauts
[NET 2030]   ?            China                --two astronauts

Emmettvonbrown · « **Reply #54 on:** 04/02/2024 12:41 pm »

Quote

IM-3 (Reiner Gamma)

The closest thing from 2001 in the real world. A greyish "eye" like Iapetus' (in the novel), with a magnetic anomaly the size of AMT-1 (except there is no monolith).

Paul451 · « **Reply #55 on:** 04/02/2024 05:45 pm »

Reformated mandrewa's table as a table. (And remembered why I hate BBCode table format so much.)

Launch Date	Mission/	Vehicle Name	Country	Company	--extra info
[NET]	(Payload)
-----
[2024-5]	-	Chang'e 6	China	-	--sample return
[2024-9]	(RAC, LMS)	Blue Ghost M1	United States	(Firefly Aerospace)
[2024-10]	(Prime-1)	IM-2	United States	(Intuitive Machines)
[2024-11]	(VIPER)	Griffin	United States	(Astrobotic)
[2024]	-	Hakuto-R 2	Japan	(ispace)
[2025-03]	-	Blue Moon Mark1 M-1	United States	(Blue Origin)
[2025]	(Reiner Gamma)	IM-3	United States	(Intuitive Machines)
[2025]	-	HLS Starship V1	United States	(SpaceX)	--uncrewed
[2025]	-	Beresheet 2	Israel	(SpaceIL)
[2026]	-	Blue Moon Mark1 M-2	United States	(Blue Origin)
[2026-9]	Artemis 3	HLS Starship V1	United States	(SpaceX)	--two astronauts
[2026-6]	(FLEX)	HLS Starship V1	United States	(Astrolab, SpaceX)	--Artemis 3 ?
[2026]	?	HLS Starship?	Australia, United States	(SpaceX?)	--Artemis 3 ?
[2026]	-	LUPEX	India, Japan	(ISRO, JAXA)
[2026]	-	APEX 1.0	United States	(Draper, ispace)
[2026]	-	Blue Ghost M2	United States	(Firefly Aerospace)
[2026]	-	Chang'e 7	China
[2026]	-	Series 3 (Mission 6)	Japan	(ispace)
[2028]	Artemis 4	HLS Starship V2	United States	(SpaceX)	--four astronauts
[2028]	-	Blue Moon Mark2 M-1	United States	(Blue Origin)	--uncrewed
[2028]	-	Chang'e 8	China
[2028]	-	Luna-27	Russian Federation
[2030-3]	Artemis 5	Blue Moon Mark2 M-2	United States	(Blue Origin)	--two astronauts
[2030]	-	Argonaut	Europe	-	--formerly the European Large Logistics Lander (EL3)
[2030]	Artemis 6	-	United States	(SpaceX)	--four astronauts
[2030]	-	?	China	-	--two astronauts
-----

[edit: I added the note to Argonaut. I looked up whether it was a vehicle or mission/payload and that came up.]

Phil Stooke · « **Reply #56 on:** 04/03/2024 06:58 am »

This looks good! I expect VIPER and Beresheet 2 will be delayed, VIPER as decisions are made about the lander and Beresheet 2 for its funding difficulties.

mandrewa · « **Reply #57 on:** 04/04/2024 12:57 pm »

Quote from: Phil Stooke on 04/03/2024 06:58 am

This looks good! I expect VIPER and Beresheet 2 will be delayed, VIPER as decisions are made about the lander and Beresheet 2 for its funding difficulties.

I expect you're correct but for the most part the NET dates in this list are based on the NET date given by the organization involved. So even though Griffin (VIPER) is almost certainly delayed, I'm not going to change that until some official source says so.

mandrewa · « **Reply #58 on:** 04/04/2024 05:27 pm »

Planned lunar landings
---------------------

[NET 2024-5]   Chang'e 6         China                --sample return
[NET 2024-9]   Blue Ghost M1 (RAC, LMS)   United States (Firefly Aerospace)
[NET 2024-10]   IM-2 (Prime-1)         United States (Intuitive Machines)
[NET 2024-11]   Griffin (VIPER)         United States (Astrobotic)
[NET 2024]   Hakuto-R 2         Japan (ispace)
[NET 2025-03]   Blue Moon Mark1 M-1      United States (Blue Origin)
[NET 2025]   IM-3 (Reiner Gamma)      United States (Intuitive Machines)
[NET 2025]    HLS Starship v1   (uncrewed)   United States (SpaceX)
[NET 2025]   Beresheet 2         Israel (SpaceIL)
[NET 2026]    Blue Moon Mark1 M-2      United States (Blue Origin)
[NET 2026-9]   Artemis 3 (HLS Starship v1)   United States (SpaceX)         --two astronauts
[NET 2026]   FLEX LRV (HLS Starship v1)   United States (Venturi Astrolab, Axiom Space, Odessy Space Research)
[NET 2026]   ?, HLS Starship?      Australia, United States (SpaceX?)   --Artemis 3 ?
[NET 2026]   LUPEX            India, Japan (ISRO, JAXA)
[NET 2026]   APEX 1.0         United States (Draper, ispace)
[NET 2026]   Blue Ghost M2         United States (Firefly Aerospace)
[NET 2026]   Chang'e 7         China
[NET 2026]   Series 3 (Mission 6)      Japan (ispace)
[NET 2028]   Artemis 4 (HLS Starship v2)   United States (SpaceX)         --four astronauts
[NET 2028]   Blue Moon Mark2 M-1 (uncrewed)   United States (Blue Origin)
[NET 2028]   Chang'e 8         China
[NET 2028] Luna-27            Russian Federation
[NET 2030-3]   Artemis 5 (Blue Moon Mark2 M-2)   United States (Blue Origin)       --two astronauts
[NET 2030]   Argonaut lunar lander (Artemis)   Europe
[NET 2030]   Artemis 6 (?)         United States (SpaceX)          --four astronauts
[NET 2030]   ?            China                --two astronauts
[NET 2030]   Moon RACER LRV (Nova-D)      United States (Intuitive Machines, Boeing, Northrup Grumman, AVL, Michelin)
[NET 2030]    Lunar Dawn LRV         United States (Lunar Outpost, Lockheed Martin, MDA Space, General Motors, Goodyear)

Note: LRV means Lunar Roving Vehicle. And these are intended to be operated either by two crew or remotely, say from the Earth or the Gateway.

Note: I've been playing around with the table format that Paul451 used, but that is such a pain to do! I may replace this with that. Or I may not.

mandrewa · « **Reply #59 on:** 04/11/2024 12:46 pm »

planned lunar landings
---------------------

[NET 2024-5]   Chang'e 6         China                --sample return
[NET 2024-9]   Blue Ghost M1 (RAC, LMS)   United States (Firefly Aerospace)
[NET 2024-10]   IM-2 (Prime-1)         United States (Intuitive Machines)
[NET 2024-11]   Griffin-1 (VIPER)         United States (Astrobotic)
[NET 2024]   Hakuto-R 2         Japan (ispace)
[NET 2025-03]   Blue Moon Mark1 M-1      United States (Blue Origin)
[NET 2025]   IM-3 (Reiner Gamma)      United States (Intuitive Machines)
[NET 2025]   HLS Starship v1   (uncrewed)   United States (SpaceX)
[NET 2025]   Beresheet 2         Israel (SpaceIL)
[NET 2026]   Blue Moon Mark1 M-2      United States (Blue Origin)
[NET 2026-9]   Artemis 3 (HLS Starship v1)   United States (SpaceX)         --two astronauts
[NET 2026]   FLEX LRV (HLS Starship v1)   United States (Venturi Astrolab, Axiom Space, Odessy Space Research)
[NET 2026]   Roo-ver rover (Artemis)      Australia   --extracts oxygen from regolith
[NET 2026]   LUPEX            India, Japan (ISRO, JAXA)
[NET 2026]   APEX 1.0         United States (Draper, ispace)
[NET 2026]   Blue Ghost M2         United States (Firefly Aerospace)
[NET 2026]   Chang'e 7         China
[NET 2026]   Series 3 (Mission 6)      Japan (ispace)
[NET 2026]   Griffen-2? (MOONRISE)      United States (Astrobotic)
[NET 2028]   Artemis 4 (HLS Starship v2)   United States (SpaceX)         --four astronauts
[NET 2028]   Blue Moon Mark2 M-1 (uncrewed)   United States (Blue Origin)
[NET 2028]   Chang'e 8         China
[NET 2028]   Luna-27            Russian Federation
[NET 2029]   Moon RACER LRV (Nova-D)      United States (Intuitive Machines, Boeing, Northrup Grumman, AVL, Michelin)
[NET 2029]    Lunar Dawn LRV         United States (Lunar Outpost, Lockheed Martin, MDA Space, General Motors, Goodyear)
[NET 2030-3]   Artemis 5 (Blue Moon Mark2 M-2)   United States (Blue Origin)       --two astronauts
[NET 2030]   Argonaut lunar lander (Artemis)   Europe
[NET 2030]   Lanyue crewed lunar lander            China                --two astronauts
[NET 2031]   Artemis 6   (HLS Starship ?)      United States (SpaceX)          --four astronauts
[NET 2031]   Lunar Cruiser (Artemis)   Japan               --pressurized lunar rover
[NET 2032]   Artemis 7         United States

Note: LRV means Lunar Roving Vehicle. LRVs are intended to be operated either by crew or remotely, say from the Earth or the Gateway.

Paul451 · « **Reply #60 on:** 04/12/2024 01:30 am »

The payload for the 2026 Australian Artemis mission is apparently called "Roo-ver". And yes I hate every single person even vaguely involved in its naming.

QuantumG · « **Reply #61 on:** 04/12/2024 02:33 am »

Quote from: Paul451 on 04/12/2024 01:30 am

The payload for the 2026 Australian Artemis mission is apparently called "Roo-ver". And yes I hate every single person even vaguely involved in its naming.

> The Australian public chose the name, after a competition that saw more than 8,000 entries.

Me too

Nah, I'm not this grumpy anymore. In fact, I recently bought myself a robotic research platform - the kind of kit a Masters student would pay good money to have extracted from their brain using Spotless Mind tech. There's so many terrible design decisions in this thing, the documentation is horrible- it's the v1 an embarrassed professional would delete. The kind of person who walks away from that and appreciates the opportunity to construct something better - both in terms of design and in building the teams and processes to get it done right - they'll be working on this rover. Which itself is a silly name for a robotics platform.

Looking forward to more landers!

Phil Stooke · « **Reply #62 on:** 05/07/2024 11:16 pm »

Taken from the list a few posts before this one:

[NET 2024-9] Blue Ghost M1 (RAC, LMS) United States (Firefly Aerospace)
[NET 2024-10] IM-2 (Prime-1) United States (Intuitive Machines)
[NET 2024-11] Griffin-1 (VIPER) United States (Astrobotic)
[NET 2024] Hakuto-R 2 Japan (ispace)

I think it's very probable that the VIPER launch will be postponed. Astrobotic is talking about flying its cuberover soon and it might fly with VIPER at some later date. I think this cuberover is what Astrobotic previously called Moonranger and was supposed to fly on Masten's lander. I'm wondering if some other payloads will be combined with the cuberover to make a test flight of Griffin, assuming some funding can be found. A big assumption!

Otherwise we are left with three other landers. Will they fly this year? In what order? All very uncertain so far. Does anyone have any other news to report on this?

AndrewM · « **Reply #63 on:** 05/17/2024 03:20 pm »

Quote from: Phil Stooke on 05/07/2024 11:16 pm

Otherwise we are left with three other landers. Will they fly this year? In what order? All very uncertain so far. Does anyone have any other news to report on this?

It looks like IM-2 is still targeting Q4.

Quote

“The technical improvements for IM-2 are vertically integrated capabilities within the company that we can perform with little or no impact on our intended quarter 4 2024 launch date or require any additional capital investment while we continue assembly of the flight vehicle.”

https://spacenews.com/intuitive-machines-making-upgrades-to-second-lunar-lander/

Vultur · « **Reply #64 on:** 08/24/2024 04:34 am »

Is Roo-ver on Artemis 3, or just part of the Artemis program but on a separate launch?

Phil Stooke · « **Reply #65 on:** 09/03/2024 06:10 am »

Roo-ver on Artemis 3? Was it not supposed to fly on the CLPS lander which carries the ESA PROSPECT payload? That was just awarded to Intuitive Machines.

Phil Stooke · « **Reply #66 on:** 10/02/2024 06:27 pm »

Still very much uncertain are the dates and order of launch of the three upcoming Moon missions: IM-2, Blue Ghost and HAKUTO-R M2. It looks to me like they would all launch within a period of a few weeks, from late December to late January. But less uncertain (barring major delays) would be the order of landing. Flight times are approximately as follows:

IM-2: 5 days to landing
Blue Ghost: c. 45 days to landing
HAKUTO-R M2: c. 90 days to landing.

So if they all launch over a few weeks, they will land in that order regardless of launch order. We can expect landings in January, February and March or April. Then maybe that Blue Moon test flight, and IM-3 (Lunar Vertex) late in the year. Does that sound about right?