Plus: Artemis and other updates, and articles on Japan’s lunar endeavors.
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• Jatan Mehta
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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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• Jatan Mehta
Moon Monday #257: NASA preps to send astronauts to Luna
Plus mission updates.
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• Jatan Mehta
Coverage of India’s exploration of Mars
* Reviewing Mangalyaan, India’s first Mars mission
* India’s Mars orbiter completes six years at the red planet, but where is the science?
* Debate: Mangalyaan’s low science output still reflects on ISRO
* Mangalyaan spacecraft terminated—it was never a science mission
* My article on Mangalyaan was rejected 8 times
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• Jatan Mehta
All the rovers heading to the Moon over the next 10 years | Moon Monday #256
As lunar exploration ramps up worldwide, our celestial companion is slated to be explored by increasingly advanced rovers of all sorts over the next 10 years. Not all of them will be successful, and so the reason for this post is not just to garner excitement about the possibilities of
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• Jatan Mehta
Articles on Japan’s Moon missions
* The joint Indo-Japanese Chandrayaan 5 LUPEX mission will drill for water on the Moon
* JAXA welcomed us into the era of precision Moon landings
* How ISRO aided this feat
* Japan’s road to landing astronauts on the Moon
* The need for resilience in private Moon landing missions through expansive and
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• Jatan Mehta
Poem: The dawn of your light
Like the dawn of the blaze
of a lander over the grays
touches your light
and spans the open lunar sky
A descent energetic yet graceful
methodical and careful
Spawned from the blue marble verse
you bring the best in us.
Poem notes: I’ve had the privilege and pleasure
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• Jatan Mehta
Achievements and shortfalls in global lunar exploration in 2025
Moon Monday #255: Capturing the state of the world’s lunar exploration efforts this year.
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• Jatan Mehta
ISRO and India had a mixed year in space in 2025
Indian Space Progress #34: An honest review of the country’s space activities this year
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• Jatan Mehta
Moon Monday #254: The one following last week’s embarrassing typo
What could’ve been the real headline instead: Lunar mission updates and India’s ultimate Moonshot.
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• Jatan Mehta
A space program can only move as swiftly as its rockets. It’s India’s time to act on that.
Indian Space Progress #33: A review of the state of ISRO’s orbital launch vehicles reveals a bleak picture of ambitious goals sliding to the right—in stark contrast to the incessant chest thumping about efficiency.
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• Jatan Mehta
Moon Monday #253: A peek at new lunar samples and mission updates
Here is a peek at some lunar samples from China’s Chang’e 5 nearside landing mission as well as the Chang’e 6 farside one! Holding them is an incredible feeling that vividly reminds you of the immense and irreplaceable value of exploring our Moon. 🌙
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• Jatan Mehta
Lunar sample science updates straight from Hong Kong | Moon Monday #252
A volcano of new results which have improved our understanding of our cosmic companion.
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• Jatan Mehta
Moon Monday #251: Prepping to live on Luna via analogs on Earth
Plus mission updates and more memes.
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• Jatan Mehta
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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• Jatan Mehta
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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• Jatan Mehta
A giant leap in orbital imagery is what we need to realize advanced Moon missions
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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• Jatan Mehta
Moon Monday #249: The one published on Sunday
Mission updates from China and the US.
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• Jatan Mehta
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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• Jatan Mehta
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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• Jatan Mehta
An assortment of lunar papers from around the world | Moon Monday #246
Like Moon-made M&Ms. 🍬😋
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• Jatan Mehta
Moon Monday #245: Blue origin to hunt for a lunar oasis
Plus mission updates.
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• Jatan Mehta
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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• Jatan Mehta
Moon Monday #243: An Amazon delivery for NASA’s VIPER rover?
Plus Chandrayaan 3 research updates and more.
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• Jatan Mehta
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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• Jatan Mehta
Moon Monday #242: Artemis II advances, and so does Long March 10 🔥
Plus mission updates.
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• Jatan Mehta
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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• Jatan Mehta
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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• Jatan Mehta
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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• Jatan Mehta
Our Moon is valuable even beyond itself | Moon Monday #239
And how science does not exist in a (lunar) vacuum.
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• Jatan Mehta
Moon Monday #238: The long march to Luna continues
Plus Artemis updates.