Newsletter for friends #05: Too many things happened lately
Hi friends,
It’s been over three months since I sent out the previous newsletter for friends. Usually I share every month’s key things as a linked list, which includes what I liked reading, professional space writing I published, some non-space thoughts I blogged about, and notable life events. The past three months have been too busy and too eventful, and it’s hard to give you a sense of it all without spewing out a robotically long post. And so instead this newsletter is a condensed list of things you might like to browse. Follow along the links you’re curious about—that’s what the Web is for. :)
Loved reading
Like newspapers, blogs change from timely to a time capsule.
Writing
- Published the 200th edition of my Moon Monday blog+newsletter! 🚀
- Created a huge, curated linked list of the state of global lunar exploration in 2024 🌙
- Shared my experience speaking in China on Moon exploration and Indian space as an invitee
- How ISRO et al. laid the groundwork for a decade of Indian space ambitions in 2024 🇮🇳
- How Chandrayaan 1, 2 and 3 leveraged their view from the Moon
- Celebrating two years and 7500+ readers of my monthly Indian Space Progress blog+newsletter
- What makes a Moon landing mission successful?
- This article got republished on Jeff Foust’s revered publication The Space Review, and was featured by Medium’s Editorial. ✨
- Critical scientific documents go missing from NASA community website
- Sharing my approach to avoid hot takes and speculative coverage
- How to follow CLPS Moon mission updates
- A long march of lunar papers from China
Space, personally
- Fun with Moon exploration headlines
- The story of my blogs
- Places I’ve published Moon Monday editions from 🌙
- An unexpected Moon Monday story
- I got a friend to publish a blog post sharing insights previously missing from the public web. I’m going to elevate the space industry’s public knowledge one blog post at a time. 🤓
- I’m pleased to share that ISRO’s webpage on details and scientific context of the Chandrayaan 4 lunar sample return mission plus their Venus orbiter cites my blog as well as my work for The Planetary Society as references! ^_^
Thoughts
- The media and arbitrary ethics
- Responding is better than replying
- If I was born and brought up in the time of modern social media, would I even blog?
- Reinventing the wheel
- Realizations about actually avoiding social media
Life and Pictures
- I do (not) care
- I finally found a great place for my daily meals. They make such homely food. The sabzis, rotis, and their amazing daal suit my taste preferences and portion sizes. The place is clean. And it doesn’t break my wallet. The best part is it’s a two-minute walk from my place. My life has stabilized and upgraded due to this. 😋
- I had fun spending the end-of-year holidays with my parents visiting me in Bangalore. Gave them a taste of the city and its food.
- China: Honestly, every stranger person there I interacted with was very nice to me, and patient with translations. Can’t say the same for Luxembourg, where some would visibly judge or ignore me because I look different than them. Not so with people in Hainan. 微笑
I went on a solo trip to Puducherry.
Their museum is fantastic. I saw locally excavated human artifacts about a million years old, things traded with the Roman empire 2,000 years ago, and ancient peri-mineralized tree trunks as well as over 200 rocks and minerals sourced from Puducherry and nearby areas. That’s one hell of a value for ₹10 ($0.12).
Shortly following this view was a dark windy seashore you could hear more than see. A crescent Moon, red Mars, bright Jupiter and Venus, and stellar Orion hung above. Moving wave crests were lightly lit by ambient light. What a lovely experience of breezy serenity. 🌊🌌
So that was my long overdue newsletter for friends. I’m grateful to have this space where I can embrace a calmer digital life and connect with you directly instead of drowning in the slurp—and now slop—of social media.
I’d love to hear what interesting things you’ve been up to.
Don’t know what to say? Reply with an interesting read!