Lunar Mission Medley Options

[MorrisJones]

Hi, this is Morris Jones, a long-time lurker but new poster.
I thought it would be worth exploring a few lunar missions that don't seem to be discussed much at the moment. The exact fate of some of these missions is open to question. Let's see if we can work out what's going on.
International Lunar Network: This was announced with fanfare a few years ago. Little more has been generally discussed. The whole thing seems to be going through committee meetings, with a lot of details unresolved.
LADEE: Is this still on target? There were suggestions two years ago that cost overruns in the Mars Science Laboratory could gobble funds from this and other missions. This was later dismissed. Then MSL grew more hungry, and the subject was open to discussion again.
GRAIL: Not much more talk, but apparently still actively in development.
Luna-Glob: The recent delay in Phobos-Grunt could influence its own launch timetable.
American Student Moon Orbiter: The silence is deafening.
Reports on the status of any of these missions would be appreciated.
Cheers,
Morris

[Phil Stooke]

Check out the presentations here:

http://lunarscience2009.arc.nasa.gov/agenda

The NASA missions you mention are near the bottom.

This upcoming meeting:

Annual Meeting of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group
November 15–19, 2009
Houston, Texas

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/leag2009/

Will be another source for updates on most of these missions. Luna-Glob obviously is a different matter but it and other upcoming missions might also be discussed there. The Student Moon Orbiter concept is not much more than that at the moment. Some suggestions are being considered...

Phil