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Website & Blog of Jatan Mehta, a globally published & cited space writer. Read deep dives on global lunar and space exploration.

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Moon Monday #251: Prepping to live on Luna via analogs on Earth

Plus mission updates and more memes.

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Celebrating 5 years and 10,000 subscribers of Moon Monday with globally published poetry on space

It also lays the foundation for the next phase in my space writing: Merge the worlds of blogs and books.

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Moon Monday #250: One small step, mission updates, and a much needed giant leap

Welcome to the 250th edition of my Moon Monday blog+newsletter! 🚀🌕

One small step: About two months ago, Moon Monday crossed 10,000 subscribers. I did not announce it until now because I wanted to celebrate it in some way. Having readers and supporters be truly

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A giant leap in orbital imagery is what we need to realize advanced Moon missions

Illustration of the LRO spacecraft orbiting our Moon. Image: NASA / GSFC / Chris Meaney

At over 1.6 petabytes, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission hosts by far the largest dataset from any planetary science spacecraft ever launched. LRO’s high-resolution lunar imagery and topographic data has been

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Moon Monday #249: The one published on Sunday

Mission updates from China and the US.

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Moon Monday #248: The one that starts with a meme

China preps complex Chang’e 7 mission to study lunar water while US Artemis III rejigs.

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Shedding light on solar activity and the Moon’s exosphere—a Diwali gift from Chandrayaan 2

Moon Monday #247 and Indian Space Progress #32

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An assortment of lunar papers from around the world | Moon Monday #246

Like Moon-made M&Ms. 🍬😋

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Moon Monday #245: Blue origin to hunt for a lunar oasis

Plus mission updates.

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Moon Monday #244: Towards lunar construction

Before we begin, a clarifying note about the title of the previous Moon Monday: An Amazon delivery for NASA’s VIPER rover? Well, I’ve received many emails saying how Amazon has a distinct space entity from Blue Origin. It’s fair to point that out but

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Moon Monday #243: An Amazon delivery for NASA’s VIPER rover?

Plus Chandrayaan 3 research updates and more.

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Verses: Hope in desolation

Space just desolate…and yet humans launch hopeto explore some more Image: Xinhua | See the first note at the end On our Moonfrom where the Sun never shines,a new era will dawn. The rim of the 10-kilometer-wide Erlanger crater on the Moon’s north pole.

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Moon Monday #242: Artemis II advances, and so does Long March 10 🔥

Plus mission updates.

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We’re building future technologies for the Moon without closing missed milestones

A review of upcoming and past lunar missions of this decade shows a wide gap between notions of technological progress versus achieved reality.

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Chandrayaan 4 will bring unique Moon materials—and maybe a giant scientific leap for India

Moon Monday #241 and Indian Space Progress #31

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No, Starship’s latest success doesn’t favor the US over China in landing humans on Luna | Moon Monday #240

Plus mission updates.

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Our Moon is valuable even beyond itself | Moon Monday #239

And how science does not exist in a (lunar) vacuum.

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Moon Monday #238: The long march to Luna continues

Plus Artemis updates.

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Notable nuances about NISAR and how it flows into planetary science for NASA and ISRO | Indian Space Progress #30

NISAR demonstrates peak peaceful uses of cutting-edge space technologies to solve humanity’s fundamental problems, and then some more.

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Moon Monday #237: China completes large lander test in latest milestone to put humans on the Moon

Reviewing all recent advances from China as it prepares to perform crewed Moon missions. Plus more mission updates.

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Everything you need to know about NASA CLPS Moon landing missions

A look at the armada of robotic landers NASA is riding to the Moon this decade.

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Moon Monday #236: A third orbiter-lander-rover trio to fire-and-fly

I’m thrilled to welcome Astrolab as a continuing yearly sponsor of my Moon Monday blog+newsletter!

California-based Venturi Astrolab Inc. (Astrolab) is developing the large multi-purpose rovers of FLEX and FLIP for advanced exploration of our Moon this decade and next. Through FLEX, Astrolab leads one

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A story about open knowledge sharing in space

It was eight years ago that I wrote a guide on how to correctly and reliably install NASA’s popular HEASoft software on Linux, a software which is extensively used in high energy Astrophysics research.

I wrote it because the official guides on NASA HEASoft’s website

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Moon Monday #235: Artemis and other mission updates

Read to the end for a jolly Jovian update!

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Explore our Moon’s wild places and wonderful samples | Moon Monday #234

A special early edition of Moon Monday for International Moon Day, July 20.

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Was Shukla’s Axiom-4 flight to the International Space Station worth it for ISRO? | Indian Space Progress #29

A complicated question to answer for a controversial flight intended to advance India’s grand ambition of indigenously sending humans to space.

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Moon Monday #233: Visualizing a new Moon based on scientific discoveries by China’s Chang’e 6 mission

I’m over the Moon to share that Open Lunar Foundation is continuing to be a sponsor of my Moon Monday blog+newsletter for the fifth year in a row! 🌕

Open Lunar is a non-profit organization that actively promotes cooperative, peaceful, and sustainable

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Moon Monday #232: Still free mission updates

And encouraging information sharing.

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On SpaceNews going paywalled, and the broader disregard for archiving in journalism

This article is a break from my usual flair because space communities worldwide are affected by this important topic, and I have some thoughts to offer to add to the discussions.


SpaceNews, a well known media publication in the global space industry, went paywalled for its website on July 1

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Moon Monday #231: Achievements and shortfalls in Moon exploration this half year

A review of notable developments by country or region.