Following humanity's return to the Moon.

Editorial Team

Moon Daily Editorial Team

Editorial Team

The Moon Daily Editorial Team produces Moon Daily's coverage of lunar exploration and science. We report on Artemis, landers and the Gateway, commercial lunar payloads, and the science of lunar geology, regolith and water ice. Articles reflect our team's collective editorial process, source verification, drafting, technical review, and editing, rather than a single writer's work. Moon Daily takes editorial responsibility for content under this byline. For more on how we work, see our editorial policy.

New NASA Mission To Reveal Moon’s Internal Structure And Evolution

Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 12, 2007 - At a Monday, Dec. 10 meeting of the American Geophysical Union, NASA's Associate Administrator for Science Alan Stern announced the selection of a new mission that will peer deep inside the moon to reveal its anatomy and history. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., will manage the Grail mission. The spacecraft will be built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver.

Dec 12, 2007

Earth’s Magnetic Field Could Help Protect Astronauts Working On The Moon

Seattle WA (SPX) Dec 12, 2007 - It has been 35 years since humans last walked on the moon, but there has been much recent discussion about returning, either for exploration or to stage a mission to Mars. However, there are concerns about potential radiation danger for astronauts during long missions on the lunar surface.

Dec 12, 2007

NASA on target for return to the moon by 2020: officials

Washington (AFP) Dec 10, 2007 - Despite funding uncertainty, NASA is on track to return humans to the moon by 2020 and set up a lunar outpost to serve as a springboard to explore Mars, officials said Monday.

Dec 10, 2007

CNSA Publishes 4 Series Of Moon Photos Taken By Chang’e-1

Beijing (XNA) Dec 10, 2007 - The China National Space Administration (CNSA) published four series of moon pictures and some data sent back by Chang'e-1, the country's first lunar orbiter, said CNSA spokesman Pei Zhaoyu on Sunday. The CNSA released the first picture of the moon captured by Chang'e-1 on Nov. 26, marking the full success of its lunar probe project.

Dec 10, 2007

Moon Race Motives Part 2

Moscow (UPI) Dec 7, 2007 - In order to explore small traps a few kilometers in diameter from the orbit of an artificial lunar satellite, it was necessary to combine the neutron detector with telescopic devices accurate enough to match measurements with crater dimensions. These measurements will yield a map of hydrogen occurrence on the Moon's surface. (Yury Zaitsev is an expert at the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Space Research. This article is reprinted by permission of the RIA Novosti news agency. The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.)

Dec 7, 2007

Whittaker And Raytheon Collaborate To Pursue Google Lunar X Prize

San Jose CA (SPX) Dec 07, 2007 - Astrobotic Technology has selected Raytheon as its supplier for development of a next-generation of high-precision, propellant-efficient lunar landing technologies. On Sept. 13, 2007, Dr. William L. Red Whittaker, Astrobotic's Chief Technology Officer and Lunar Mission Commander declared his intention to pursue the recently announced Google Lunar X Prize.

Dec 7, 2007

Planetary Society Joins Private Effort For Moon Mission

Pasadena CA (SPX) Dec 07, 2007 - On December 6th, Odyssey Moon, the first team to complete registration for the $30M Google Lunar X PRIZE, will unveil its plans to land the first private robotic mission on the Moon. The Planetary Society has joined the Odyssey Moon team to assist in education and public involvement and with international and science liaison for the project.

Dec 7, 2007

Moon Race Motives Part One

Moscow (UPI) Dec 6, 2007 - The Moon theme will continue to dominate in 2008, because space powers now regard it as a priority. The United States, India and Japan will send probes to the Moon. Next: Soil sample plans. (Yury Zaitsev is an expert at the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Space Research. This article is reprinted by permission of the RIA Novosti news agency. The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.)

Dec 6, 2007

SMART-1 Produces Travel Maps Of The Lunar North Pole

Paris, France (ESA) Dec 06, 2007 - A new map obtained with SMART-1 data shows the geography and illumination of the lunar north pole. Such maps will be of great use for future lunar explorers. The lunar poles are very interesting for future science and exploration of the Moon mainly because of their exposure to sunlight. They display areas of quasi-eternal light, have a stable thermal environment and are close to dark areas that could host water ice - potential future lunar base sites.

Dec 6, 2007

Man in the Moon is four billion years old

Paris (AFP) Dec 5, 2007 - The plains of solidified lava that give the Moon its quirky human-like face as seen from Earth were created more than four billion years ago, according to a paper appearing on Thursday in Nature, the British science weekly.

Dec 5, 2007

China Will Soon Have Its Own Moon Globe

Beijing (XNA) Dec 05, 2007 - China will make its own lunar globe soon, using pictures and data collected by its own moon orbiter, said an official in charge of the country's moon exploration mission on Tuesday. I believe that China will soon come up with a full map of the moon, said Hu Hao, head of the lunar exploration center under the Commission of Science Technology and Industry of National Defense (COSTIND).

Dec 5, 2007

Data From Chinese Lunar Orbiter Available To All

Shanghai (XNA) Dec 04, 2007 - Scientists and astronomy enthusiasts all over the country all have access to data sent back from China's first lunar orbiter Chang'e-I, a leading scientist in the program said here Sunday. Ouyang Ziyuan, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and chief scientist of the lunar exploration program, said at present the scientific instruments on board Chang'e-1 have all gone into operation and the satellite is sending back 3 trillion of data per second. The total data volume will reach 28 T (1 T is equivalent to 1,000 G) next year.

Dec 4, 2007

Northrop Grumman Starts Integration And Test On LCROSS Spacecraft

Redondo Beach CA (SPX) Dec 04, 2007 - The satellite that will impact the Moon in 2009 in a search for water has started to come together in a manufacturing high bay at Northrop Grumman's Space Technology sector. The company is building the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) under contract to NASA Ames Research Center.

Dec 4, 2007

KAGUYA (SELENE) Composes 3-D Movies With Terrain Camera Images

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Nov 30, 2007 - The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) successfully demonstrated production of stereo movies (3 dimensional movies) of the Moon surface by using stereoscopic images obtained with the Terrain Camera (TC) onboard KAGUYA on Nov. 3, 2007 (Japan Standard Time, JST). This verification was performed as part of the initial check out of mission instruments onboard KAGUYA (SELENE), which was injected into the Moon's orbit at an altitude of about 100 km.

Nov 30, 2007

China Publishes First Moon Picture

Beijing (XNA) Nov 27, 2007 - China published the first picture of the moon captured by Chang'e-1 on Monday morning, marking the success of the country's first lunar probe project. The framed black-and-white photo was unveiled by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center. The image showed a rough moon surface with scattered round craters both big and small.

Nov 27, 2007

Watch Out For Flying Moondust

Cape Canaveral FL (SPX) Nov 26, 2007 - At Cape Canaveral, not far from the launch pad where the space shuttle lifts off, there's a ragged hole in a chain link fence. Its message: Watch out for flying boulders. The powerful exhaust of the shuttle's solid rocket boosters blasts concrete out of the flame trench below the engines, explains physicist Phil Metzger of the Kennedy Space Center (KSC).

Nov 26, 2007