It may be true that no one can hear you scream in space, but we'd be wagering that a whole lot of people can hear the yelling coming out of Houston-based Oceaneering International, Inc., who just lost their two month old $745 million NASA contract to build the next-gen space suit. Of course, the bid was not without its fair share of bitching and moaning by competing contractors (apparently long time space suit-makers Hamilton Sundstrand and ILC Dover made a big stink after the contract was awarded to their upstart competitor), but them's the breaks when your gear's headed to space. Too bad though, we were really looking forward to the gear -- especially since now we have absolutely nothing to wear to the astro-prom.

NASA has delayed plans to send an unmanned robotic spacecraft to the Moon -- and the pause in action will cost $7 million a month, say reports. According to various news outlets, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter was set to blast off for the Big Cheese this December, but officials have decided a February 27th launch will provide the team with more wiggle room. The $491 million device is being sent skyward to circle the Moon's poles and map a safe touchdown spot for actual humans, set to journey up onto the Lunar surface sometime in 2020. In addition to the Orbiter, the space agency plans to launch an impactor probe into one of the Moon's poles in search of water ice. It should be a blast.

GPS on the moon may seem a bit far-fetched... that is, until you remember the US military's plans to launch a WiFi router into space. The same Ohio State University researcher who developed software for the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity is now developing a GPS-like system that would enable astronauts to navigate terrain as if they were simply routing themselves through a plot of land on Earth. Because of the moon's location (we're simplifying things here), Ron Li is having to create a similar system (read: not bona fide GPS) that relies on "signals from a set of sensors including lunar beacons, stereo cameras, and orbital imaging devices" in order to provide navigational output. Everyone involved is hoping to have it operational by 2020 (the next planned trip to the moon), but the team will be stuck testing in the Mojave Desert. Bummer.

[Via Physorg]

NASA just awarded its future spacesuit contract to Oceaneering International. The US firm must now design, test, and produce two suits -- the default suit (pictured after the break) worn on-board for launch and landing and a second, more versatile, cheese-proof suit worn during space walks and upon the surface of the moon. The suits must be ready for the first scheduled launch of the Orion Space Capsule in 2015. The contract is valued at the government special price of just $745 million. Hey, we have to keep up appearances at the International Space Station, you know.

Did you know that NASA was building a base of operations in the south pole of the Moon? Did you know colonists would be living and working there? Did you know that plans are in motion to establish a satellite phone network which would allow said colonists to communicate with one another? Well, it's all true... and more! According to a report, NASA and the British National Space Centre (BNSC) are preparing a trial phone network to be deployed on the Moon. The system, called MoonLite, will be comparable to the satellite phone networks of the 80's and 90's here on Earth, and will be used to facilitate communication between occupants on the base and robots and workers which are out and about. The satellites will handle data as well as voice communication, with 3kbps downstream and 2kbps up -- though we're told Verizon will control the entire system, with plans to bottleneck speed at will.

[Via PHONE Magazine]

We have bad enough luck with cellphone coverage in our own apartment to worry much about balls of dirt floating around in space, but YouNeverCall is tacking a slim $10k onto Google's existing $30 million in moon-related prize money for the first cellphone call made by a device or a person on the moon, so if you're headed there any time soon you might want to give it a shot. Sure, $10k probably pales in comparison to the expense of even adding a phone and related hardware to the payload -- not to mention those hefty interstellar roaming charges -- and it mainly seems like a bit of cheap PR for the YouNeverCall peeps, but we like the concept of a moon rover doing something more than just roaming and pesky science while it's chilling out way up there. Whoever or whatever is making the call will need to be able to answer some simple questions while on the phone, and the call must pass through a commercially available cellphone -- though technical details are murky beyond that. Secondary prizes are also on offer for first SMS message and first usage for the Crazy Frog Ringtone.

[Via MobileWhack]

Google's sponsering a new X Prize, and this one has its sights set a bit higher than suborbital. The new contest wants competitors to send a robotic rover to the moon and beam back a gigabyte of data -- including pictures and video -- of the trip. The rover also has to travel 1,312 feet across the surface of the moon. Contest entrants are required to pony up for the launch vehicle themselves, by building it from scratch or contracting with an existing company; like the last X Prize there's no government freeloading to be had here. If somebody is successful in this feat by 2012 they'll win the $20 million, while $5 million goes to second place, and another $5 million bonus goes to teams able to surpass the minum requirements. The prize drops to $15 million after 2012 and expires in 2014 if nobody manages to win by then. More details will be announced at the WIRED Nextfest in LA this weekend.

Up until now, if you wanted to test some theories about the Moon, its distance, or deviations from general relativity, you would have to shoot a laser from Earth to a group of old, dusty and imprecise reflectors from the Apollo era, which sit on the surface the big cheese -- but that might all be changing. NASA announced recently that it's funding development of a moon-based laser system, which would answer the laser bursts from Earth with its own, thus cutting down on fluctuations in readings and allowing for a more accurate study of the Moon's distance. Because there's no better way to spend several million dollars than sending a laser up to the moon to clarify a few millimeters of uncertainty.

Roger Angel's idea to launch a 100-meter liquid mirror telescope on the moon is far from the only mammoth-sized dream that could be headed into space, and if the feasibility study shows enough promise, it just might happen. The University of Arizona astronomer mentioned that the idea of putting an "enormous liquid-mirror telescope on the moon that could be hundreds of times more sensitive than the Hubble Space Telescope" had been around awhile, but apparently it's finally getting the attention it deserves. If constructed, it would easily be the largest ever built, and would reportedly allow scientists to "study the oldest and most distant objects in the universe, including the very first stars." The project is being investigated on behalf of NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts, and while these type devices are "relatively cheap" to build, it should be noted that it's being compared (at least financially) to the $4.5 billion James Webb Space Telescope. Now, where's the signup sheet for freelance contractors to get in on the moon-based build process?

[Via Wired]

We've got means to extract oxygen from water, a portable bar, and even ways to deprive entire server farms of the sustenance, but a new project being tackled by Lockheed Martin is hoping to create O2 on the moon. A critical part of NASA's PILOT (Precursor In-situ Lunar Oxygen Testbed) initiative, this digger bot will work hand-in-hand with a "processing plant that will add hydrogen to moon soil, heat it to 1,652-degrees Fahrenheit, condense the steam, and finally extract the oxygen." Additionally, the blue LIDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) box atop the three-foot-long machine can assist it in locating "oxygen-rich lunar soil and autonomously carry it to a processing plant." The overriding goal is to use the newly extracted O2 for air, or moreover, to combine it with hydrogen and produce water for the four astronauts that the lunar base could support. Unfortunately, there's no timetable as to when we'll actually see the PILOT roll into action, but we're most interested in porting this bad boy over to Mars along with half the traffic in LA.

[Via The Raw Feed]