Will private companies take over or at least grow up to the large government-funded space programs? The history of maritime, railway and aerial transport tells us that once the new ground had been broken, private enterprises sooner or later became more efficient than the pioneering efforts of government sponsored programs. But will that apply for space travel as well, or are space and other planets too alien and to go there will always require too much investment from small and/or profit-seeking companies? And will the Puli ever bark on the Moon? The Common Sense Society invites everybody for a panel discussion and Q&A session about these topics to the Ybl Palace at Budapest, at 7 pm on June 27^th. The event will be held in English. You can find the full invitation below.

Hungary's first satellite, Masat-1 is still going strong and indulges us with lovely pictures from space. It captured images of the southern hemisphere of the Earth, the Sun and our target, the Moon. It may not be the prettiest picture of our companion, but it is nonetheless made from space, with a camera that is smaller than a fingernail and weighs as much as two euro coins – and Hungarian.

The third annual contest of the X Prize Foundation and LEGO is here, and this time it is about an important issue of the actual GLXP missions: heritage artifacts left around the lunar landscape. The competition is divided into two phases. In Phase One, the teams of 2-5 youth between the age of 9 and 17 are invited to share their thoughts about these issues and lunar landscape challenge design in a fun and creative video.

Planetary Resources Inc. announced it will mine asteroids and acquire new raw materials like water and precious metals from space. The astonishing claims are backed by billionaire investors like Larry Page, founder of Google, or Charles Simonyi, space tourist along with former astronauts, NASA veterans and space industry gurus. The company plans to launch its first spacecraft within 24 months and promises to mass produce satellites for prospecting and mining Near Earth Objects.

The latent disorder and defects of the Russian space program came abruptly in the limelight after the loss of the Phobos-Grunt probe. Though the first reactions stated that the failure of the Martian probe wouldn't affect the lunar program, the odds were against that. After a good six months, the redesigned program starts to take shape, with more careful missions and launch dates shifted to the right with a few years (again).