When the first human being set foot on the moon in 1969, only national governments had the resources to go into space because it takes a lot of money, innovation, talent, work. But that isn't the situation today.
Multiple companies are forming to do business in space. NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (an agency of the U.S. Government), supports the trend:
Instead of building their own rockets, NASA is now a client of companies that build rockets. They specify what they need and share information, but people who work at companies like SpaceX are the ones who build them.
Here are Elon Musk and Jim Bridenstine (former head of NASA) in 2020 discussing their partnership. Bridenstine says that SpaceX has something NASA has been lacking, a "willingness to fail." He says they "fly, test, fail, fix" - repeatedly. (To get to the good stuff, start at about 2:40.)
Last April NASA awarded a $2.9 billion contract for a lunar lander to SpaceX for practical reasons. Blue Origin and Dynetics lost that competition.
But Jeff Bezos (Blue Origin) didn't let it go. The two losing companies filed a challenge and complaint with NASA. No money could flow to help SpaceX develop its Starship until the challenge was answered and resolved.
NASA is done with its deliberations now, concluding that they decided fairly in April - based on the funds that Congress had given NASA to work with.
So . . it's still SpaceX.
Artemis is the name of the mission to land people on the moon again, many years after the last time. There will be more bumps in the road and politics will play a huge part in the outcome. Count me in with the American people who hope it can still be done.
NASA launched a lunar lander from Cape Canaveral last month, but the rocket booster was not from the well-known and often-used SpaceX.
United Launch Alliance (ULA), owned by Lockheed Martin and Boeing, was formed in 2005 to make rockets. They dominated the market for almost a decade, charging NASA over $400 million per launch. NASA contracted with them in 2013 for 28 launches, but SpaceX protested, offering a price of just $90 million using their Falcon 9.
A major restructuring of ULA followed with the goal being to cut its launch pricing in half so that it could compete, but the company was still in danger of bankruptcy by 2015. They asked for $1+ billion from the US Air Force to help them develop a new rocket called the Vulcan. Today that rocket provides 22,000 jobs across the country.
Jumping over the intervening years, last month's launch was delivered by ULA's brand new rocket, the Vulcan Centaur, at a price to NASA of $108 million for its five payloads.
I still have questions about ULA. If I find answers, I'll continue this.
Nokia's contract to build a lunar cellular network part is just one of many that NASA has selected.
Fourteen privately held companies are now partnering with NASA in the effort to put Americans on the moon again by 2024. The total dollar sum divided between the companies is $370 million.
For example, SpaceX will get $53 million for an in-space demonstration transferring 11 tons of liquid oxygen between tanks on one of its starships.
For other companies awarded contracts, see NASA.
from Space
Every incoming executive probably has plans to change something in his new role. New NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman has a plan for America's space program which he says will take us back to basics.
We need more launches, he says first, "on a yearly cadence." Can our Artemis-designated space vehicle, Boeing's SLS, keep up with that aggressive push in light of its history of missing both budgets and target dates? His response: "It's 100% achievable." With regard to past SLS failures, NASA will take responsibility to "make better decisions." I hope so.
An additional launch was added to the original Artemis plan. Artemis 3 will launch next year, 2027, because it's "imperative," he says, to practice the docking of the SLS with the lunar lander (made by either SpaceX or Blue Origin). No human feet will stand on the Moon's surface til Artemis 4 which is scheduled for 2028.
SpaceX accomplished it at last, launching the new version of Starship (SN15) six miles up and returning it to the ground in a soft landing. All the previous prototypes ended in "rud" - rapid unplanned disassembly, i.e. explosion.
It's not only tech companies that invest in new applications of nuclear power. NASA (American Space and Aeronautics Agency) is researching how to make nuclear energy our reliable power source for use on the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
Getting astronauts there is not the entire challenge. When they get there, they'll need power for living and exploring. There won't be a back-up electrical grid using natural gas or coal or any fossil fuel. A nuclear plant will have to support the Artemis mission's goal, a sustainable human presence on the Moon.
It's called the fission surface power project. The fission reactor will have to be relatively lightweight, self-contained, and small compared to what we have on earth. How powerful must it be? At least 40 kilowatts. In earth terms, it could "continuously run 30 households for ten years."
from NASA
(cont'd tomorrow)
No longer is activity in space limited to nations with big budgets. In the U.S., NASA changed their way of operating to a model of cooperation with private businesses (like SpaceX) who do all the building while working with NASA's expertise.
Rocket launches, though, are not the only thing being done in space by private businesses. For example, harvesting solar power from outside our atmosphere is the goal of some.
Another idea being considered is to mine asteroids for metals we need on earth.
Under the previous U.S. president, a goal of 2024 was set to go back to the moon. Last week NASA chose SpaceX to accomplish this goal.
Starship, the same new spacecraft being developed and tested at Boca Chica TX, will be NASA's lunar lander for its Artemis mission.
from Business Insider
(cont'd tomorrow)
(cont'd from yesterday's post)
NASA adopted (during the previous administration) the goal of returning a human presence to our Moon for long-term research and exploration: the Artemis project.
A series of missions will get us there, and the first one is coming soon. After a successful fueling test of its SLS rocket last month, the window which has been targeted for Artemis 1 is August 23-September 6.
Without crew, this first mission will test how NASA's deep space exploration systems work together: the Orion spacecraft, Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, and the ground systems at Kennedy Space Center.
Orion is the spacecraft designed for human crew. On this mission, it will fly 280,000 miles (thousands of miles beyond the moon) over a period of 4-6 weeks.
Artemis 1's mission manager says, “It will blaze a trail that people will follow on the next Orion flight, pushing the edges of the envelope to prepare for that mission.”
from NASA
(cont'd from yesterday's post)
Yesterday's re-post is more than five years old, so there may have been tweaks in the plan since we first looked at it. The latest description of the Artemis Program (image) on NASA's website reflects a up-to-date overview.
The plan consists of four missions. Artemis 1 was completed in December of 2022, confirming that NASA has a "foundational deep-space transportation system" that really works, that can be relied on to carry out the rest of the missions.
