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.

Suitcase Science On The Moon

Huntsville AL (SPX) Aug 20, 2007 - In October 1963, two cartographers with the Air Force Aeronautical Chart and Information Center saw a strange glow on the moon. Using the 24-inch refractor telescope at Lowell observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, James Greenacre and Edward Barr saw a deep, ruby-red glow coming from the crater Aristarchus. The sighting might have been glowing gas from volcanic activity, and a second sighting in November of that year was verified by Dr. John Hall, Director of the observatory at the time.

Aug 20, 2007

SSTL To Develop Low Cost Lunar Orbiter For NASA

London UK (SPX) Aug 15, 2007 - Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) has been awarded a contract for the study phase of a potential joint US-UK lunar orbiter mission to be called Magnolia. This first phase of the contract will run for 9-months, culminating in a preliminary mission design. The contract includes a package of training by SSTL and the University of Surrey that will allow Mississippi State University (MSU) and NASA Stennis Space Center staff to benefit from the know-how accrued by SSTL over the last 25 years, across 27 small satellite missions.

Aug 15, 2007

China Plans To Survey ‘Every Inch’ Of Moon

Beijing (AFP) Aug 10, 2007 - China plans to survey all of the moon's surface before eventually bringing bits of the planet back to Earth, state media reported Friday.

Aug 10, 2007

Seeing The Moon Anew

Houston TX (SPX) Aug 05, 2007 - Nearly 40 years after man first walked on the Moon, the complete lunar photographic record from the Apollo project will be accessible to both researchers and the general public on the Internet. A new digital archive - created through a collaboration between Arizona State University and NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston - is making available high-resolution scans of original Apollo flight films.

Aug 5, 2007

NASA Selects Astrophysics Projects For New Science On The Moon

Washington (SPX) Aug 03, 2007 - NASA has selected four proposals focusing on astrophysics priorities in lunar science to facilitate the nation's exploration program. The proposed studies are part of a NASA effort to develop new opportunities to conduct important science investigations during the planned renewal of human exploration of the moon. The newly-announced proposals for concept studies may lead to experiments placed on the moon that would allow for unprecedented tests of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, instruments to probe the early evolution of structure in the universe, and observation of X-rays produced by the charged particles the sun emits, known as the solar wind.

Aug 3, 2007

Throttling Back To The Moon

Huntsville AL (SPX) Jul 24, 2007 - Accelerating from 0 to 60 then slowing down for a stop light is no problem for an ordinary automobile. But if you were piloting a rocketship, it wouldn't be so easy. Most rocket engines are designed to burn full-on (liftoff!) or full-off (coasting through space) with no in-between. And that can be a problem--namely, how do you land this thing?

Jul 24, 2007

Moonshine Can Reflect Lunar Composition

Phoenix (UPI) Jul 18, 2007 - U.S. scientists determined that they can predict concentrations of certain minerals on the moon by comparing variations in reflected light. Samples of lunar rocks returned by U.S. astronauts show large variations in titanium oxide concentrations, suggesting complex compositional zonation within the lunar mantle.

Jul 18, 2007

Northrop Grumman Helps NASA Shape Plans For Affordable Lunar Lander

El Segundo CA (SPX) Jul 10, 2007 - The lunar lander that will carry NASA astronauts to the moon's surface by the end of the next decade will benefit from more than 50 years of technological change -- and more than 50 years of unique engineering and operational experience from Northrop Grumman Corporation, the designer and producer of the original Apollo Lunar Module.

Jul 10, 2007

Summer Moon Illusion

Huntsville AL (SPX) Jun 29, 2007 - On Saturday night, June 30th, step outside at sunset and look around. You'll see a giant moon rising in the east. It looks like Earth's moon with the usual craters and seas, but something's wrong. This full moon is strangely inflated. It's huge! You've just experienced the Moon Illusion. Sky watchers have known for thousands of years that low-hanging moons look unnaturally big. Cameras don't see it, but human eyes do; it's a genuine illusion.

Jun 29, 2007

NASA Plans New Era Of Suitcase Sized Lunar Science

Washington DC (SPX) Jun 22, 2007 - NASA has selected proposals, including two from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., for future lunar science activities. In addition, the agency has established two new programs that will enhance research made possible by the Vision for Space Exploration. The proposals and programs are part of an effort by NASA to develop new opportunities to conduct important science investigations during the planned renewal of human exploration of the moon.

Jun 22, 2007

X PRIZE Announces Competitors For Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge

Santa Monica CA (SPX) Jun 21, 2007 - A real rocket race is on the horizon with the return of the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge (NG-LLC) -- the centerpiece of the Wirefly X PRIZE Cup and Holloman Air and Space Expo. In the Challenge's second year, the number of teams competing for the $2 million purse has increased from four teams to nine.

Jun 21, 2007

Japan To Launch Lunar Orbiter On August 16

Tokyo (AFP) June 13, 2007 - Japan will launch a lunar orbiter on August 16 to collect data for research of the moon's origin and evolution, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said Wednesday. The probe will consist of a main unit, which will circulate 100 kilometres (60 miles) above the moon, and two small satellites, the agency said. It will be launched from the Space Centre on the isle of Tanegashima off the southern tip of Kyushu Island, southern Japan, aboard a domestic H-IIA rocket for a one-year mission.

Jun 13, 2007

A Climate Monitoring Station On The Moon

Ann Arbor, MI (SPX) May 30, 2007 - Poets may see a face of plaintive sweetness or a cheek like beryl stone when they look at the moon, but Shaopeng Huang sees something else altogether: the ideal location for a network of observatories dedicated to studying climate change on Earth. Using data from an Apollo 15 experiment whose original intent was thwarted by unanticipated lunar surface conditions, the University of Michigan geophysicist recently showed that surface temperatures on the near side of the moon accurately record important information about Earth's climate system.

May 30, 2007

No Plans To Join NASA Lunar Program Says Russian Space Agency

Washington (RIA Novosti) May 28, 2007 - Russia will not participate in joint lunar exploration with NASA, but will assist the U.S. with its shuttle program until 2015, a spokesman for the Russian space agency said. After U.S. President George W. Bush announced his Vision for Space Exploration in 2004, a plan for new manned lunar missions, the country's National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) elaborated a program that envisions the construction of a manned lunar base, which will require broad international cooperation.

May 28, 2007

First China Mission To Moon To Launch By Year End

Beijing (Xinhua) May 22, 2007 - China was losing no time in preparing its first lunar orbiter, Chang'e I, which will most likely be launched in the second half of 2007, a space official said here on Sunday. The moon probe project is the third milestone in China's space technology after satellite and manned spacecraft projects, and a first step for us in exploring deep space, said Sun Laiyan, chief of the China National Space Administration.

May 22, 2007

Oresme Crater Show Many Signs Of The Early Lunar Heavy Bombardment

Paris, France (ESA) May 22, 2007 - This image, taken by the Advanced Moon Imaging Experiment (AMIE) on board ESA's SMART-1 spacecraft, shows the Oresme crater on the Moon. AMIE obtained this picture on 30 August 2006 - only 4 days before SMART-1's final impact on the lunar surface. It was taken from a distance of 1 100 kilometres over the surface, with a ground resolution of 110 metres per pixel.

May 22, 2007