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This Space Café WebTalk will feature Héloïse Vertadier and Christopher Johnson in a conversation with Torsten Kriening about "Lunar Policy Handbook: Guiding Responsible and Sustainable Development of the Moon". This document is a reference guidebook for government personnel and private actors in the space industry. It is designed to be a high-level guide that is useful for a broad audience of space actors, outlining policy issues and operational considerations related to lunar activities.

In his conversation with Lukasz, Maciej will talk about his experience in the space sector, focusing primarily on the use of Earth observation data to support various economic sectors and public policies. He will describe how this data supports social development and is useful for everyday life.

X-Energy Reactor Company and Kinectrics have announced a partnership to design, construct, and operate one of the first commercial-scale Helium Test Facilities (“HTF”) in North America. This facility will test and verify the performance of critical structures, systems, and components of X-energy’s Xe-100 advanced small modular reactor in helium-based high-temperature and high-pressure environments.

The OPS-SAT Mission Control Team has received its trophy after winning the 2023 International SpaceOps Award for Outstanding Achievement. The award recognizes the team’s outstanding achievement in creating and operating the world’s first mission dedicated to improving space operations by allowing rapid experimentation of mission-critical processes in an open, flying laboratory. It is the first time that an ESA-only operating mission has won the award since its inception in 2006. 

Epiroc, a productivity and sustainability partner for the mining and infrastructure industries, has signed a long-term collaboration agreement with ispace that will involve Epiroc contributing technology and solutions for commercial Moon missions. 

ClearSpace and LeoLabs have signed a Memorandum of Understanding recognizing their shared vision for a safe and sustainable space ecosystem and their mutual efforts in making this vision a reality.  The partnership signals a desire to build on this mutual success and previous collaborative efforts, such as the joint LEO Kinetic Space Safety Workshop in May 2022. The MOU also serves as a formal declaration of ClearSpace and LeoLabs’ intent to work together on several new initiatives.

The idea of space-based solar power has been around since the 1960s, but recently gained new momentum. While we already use solar power today on Earth, there are a few drawbacks to putting solar panels on our rooftops or fields. The most important is the intermittent nature of Earth-based solar power, as its power generation fluctuates during the day - and goes down to zero at night. In addition, to compensate for this intermittency and the low load factor (appx. 11 % yearly average), large areas of land have to be covered with solar power to produce enough energy, and storage or backup capacities are needed for the nights and winter months.

NASA announced on the 30th of March that it has established the new Moon to Mars Program Office at NASA Headquarters in Washington to carry out the agency’s human exploration activities at the Moon and Mars. Amit Kshatriya will serve as the agency’s first head of office, effective immediately. Kshatriya previously served as acting deputy associate administrator for Common Exploration Systems Development.

Intelsat has completed testing of the operational and data collection system for the first space-based instrument to monitor major air pollutants across the North American continent every daylight hour at high resolution. The new UV-visible spectrometer, which Intelsat operates for NASA and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, will launch on the Intelsat 40e (IS-40e) satellite tentatively next month.

Ai Telecom Networks, a Mexican satellite and terrestrial communications provider, will partner with Astranis - American geostationary communications satellite operator and manufacturer- and ST Engineering iDirect - an American satellite communications company - for new MicroGEO satellites. The satellites and ground infrastructure will deliver connectivity for 4G cellular backhaul and enterprise services across Mexico and part of Central America. Ai Telecom's MicroGEN satellites will be built by Astranis and will use ST Engineering iDirect's Mx-DMA MRC waveform technology.