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Private Japanese company iSpace is sending its M1 lander carrying Rashid, a new rover from the United Arab Emirates.While the Orion spacecraft, a key part of NASA's Artemis I mission, is on its way back to Earth after going far beyond the moon, a new lunar lander from Japan and a small rover from the United Arab Emirates are set to blast off from Florida early Wednesday.The Hakuto R mission is led by the private Japanese company iSpace and will send its M1 lander, which is about the size of a chest freezer, to the surface of the moon...Hakamada added...

The second race to the moon went into high gear when the Google Lunar X Prize officially certified that Moon Express has contracted with a company called Rocket Lab to launch its lunar lander on board an Electron rocket sometime in late 2017 to land on the moon. Moon Express is the second team competing for the $30 million prize to land on the moon to have acquired a certified launch contract. SpaceIL, an Israeli team, has already acquired a contract to launch their lander on board the SpaceX Falcon 9.

Agencia Espacial Mexicana (AEM) and Astrobotic Technology Inc. are pleased to announce a joint effort to facilitate the development and delivery of the first payload from Latin America to the Moon. Astrobotic and AEM have entered into an agreement outlining a commitment by both organizations to enable a Mexican payload to the Moon. Through this partnership, AEM will take its first step to another planetary body. "Opening access to the Moon is precisely at the core of Astrobotic's mission," said John Thornton, CEO of Astrobotic. "AEM's rising space science and exploration community is yet one more example of the immense...

[Lots of us have Robert Heinlein’s vision from “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” of the Moon becoming a libertarian bastion of freedom that separates from the repressive Earth. This article shows Astrobotics Technology, trying to win the Google Lunar X Prize, developing a drill to survey for water on the Moon. Conservatives and libertarians should be glad that these are both private companies and that we get closer to private colonies! – Celestron 14]October 11, 2012 -- The search for water ice on the moon could be led someday by a robot armed with a 4-foot drill. With the...