Jeff Bezo’s vision for space settlement and the unveiling of the Blue Moon lunar lander:
Space Access Society 2019 April 19 – 21
Day 1 – The Entrepreneurial Revolution In Smallsat Launch
http://space-access.org/updates/sa2019schedule.html#Thursday
Day 2 – Reusable Rocket Transport Networks in Earth-Moon (and Mars, and Nearby Asteroids) Space
http://space-access.org/updates/sa2019schedule.html#Friday
Day 3 – After Rockets, Getting There Faster: High Energy Propulsion Possibilities
http://space-access.org/updates/sa2019schedule.html#Saturday
Lunar Propellant Production Plan
A collaborative effort by a team of experts from industry, government, and academia has developed an economically viable model for a sustainable lunar propellant production infrastructure to support lunar settlement and cis-lunar operations. The team’s findings were published in the March issue of REACH (link below). To reduce costs and weight, the proposal replaces conventional mining equipment for excavating, hauling, and processing with lightweight heating enclosures to extract water by sublimation out of the regolith for subsequent electrolysis into hydrogen an oxygen. The study established feasibility and a path to commercialization. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352309318300099#aep-article-footnote-id1
NASA FY 2020 budget may cut SLS, favors funding for lunar landers
The Wall Street Journal reports that NASA is stepping up its lunar initiative and may place astronauts on the Moon by 2024.
The proposed $21 Billion budget is a 5% increase over last year and includes $500 million for lunar initiatives to accelerate public/private partnership with industry on proposed lunar landers.