Dear Readers,

Debris from the Titan submersible was returned to land on June 27, 2023, after a fatal submersible implosion during its voyage to the wreck of the Titanic, the week prior.The return of the debris to port in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, was a key piece of the investigation into why the submersible imploded, killing all five people on board. The Canadian ship Horizon Arctic carried a remotely operated vehicle to search the ocean floor near the Titanic wreck for pieces of the submersible. Such catastrophe is a reminser for all adventurous explorations of the risks involved. Unlike the oceanic environment at depths of its floor, the environment at the Moon's surface is comparably harsh and perhaps deadly as well. As the ARTEMIS Program gears up to a real presence on the Moon, space weather must be considered as a risk to functional performance of technologies underlying space assets intended for lunar operations. Apollo operations on the Moon and extravehicular activities on the International Space Station directly interfaced astronauts with space weather. Protected with only a spacesuit worn, astronauts. completed their mission tasks at high risk to their health. The media showcased these feats as aspirational to all the stakeholders with vested interest in the outcome. Astronauts are the extensions of human earthly existence that transcended onto an extraterrestrial domain well beyond our planetary horizons. The Artemis Program promises a sustainable presence on the Moon for which robotic operations may initially replace human astronautic employment. This issue explores the technical acceptance stakeholders must consider as it outweighs the ongoing Artemis investments to proceed.

Sincerely,
Ronald H. Freeman, PhD
Editor-in-Chief
July 1, 2023

Journal of Space Operations & Communicator, a quarterly online publication, serves as a forum for those involved in the space operations field to communicate with one another, share ideas and information that improve the way operations are carried out in space. The Journal is a crossdisciplinary scholarly publication designed to advance space communication as a profession and as an academic discipline. The Journal is distributed electronically without charge to users on a global basis. 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.