Dear Readers,

In May 2019, NASA announced that it would pay Intuitive Machines $77 million to send five payloads to the moon. Intuitive Machines and other companies in its Commercial Lunar Payload Services program (CLPS) signed fixed-price contracts to deliver NASA payloads to the moon. Such contracts mean that if something goes wrong and costs increase, generally it is the companies, and not NASA, that covers the difference. However, when Intuitive Machines landed on the moon, NASA renegotiated the payment to nearly $118 million. NASA originally wanted Intuitive Machines to send its Odysseus mission to an easier-to-reach spot in the equatorial region of the moon, Oceanus Procellarum, a huge, scientifically intriguing dark spot on the near side of the moon. With future missions intended toward the moon’s south pole region, NASA asked Intuitive Machines to change the landing site for a location near a crater named Malapert A, the farthest south that any lunar lander had targeted. That change cost an extra $28.4 million. NASA also added almost $12 million to compensate for disruptions that companies experienced during the coronavirus pandemic and for changes in what it was sending on the mission [Chang, K. (February 22, 2024). Why did the bill to NASA grow by tens of millions of dollars? New York Times].

Recent successful lander missions to the Moon including those by private U.S. space exploration companies suggest new era of lunar operations that will command greater autonomy. This issue investigates the role artificial intelligence missions will incorporate with landing site selection and directed pathfinding routes to permanently shadow regions of the lunar south pole. Not only will lunar communications be limited, but lunar traversabilty will be challenged by complex crater-/boulder- dense terrain navigation. The two papers on lunar operations represent a contemporary special topic of modern space operations. JSOC contains peer-reviewed articles, comments and case notes written by leading scientists, professors, and practitioners in their respective fields of aerospace expertise. The editorial board seeks articles that demonstrate exemplary academic research of emerging trends in space technology and space operations fields.

Sincerely,
Ronald H. Freeman, PhD
Editor-in-Chief
July 1, 2024