| |
EI2GYB > ASTRO 12.11.21 12:59l 99 Lines 4993 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 17432_EI2GYB
Read: GUEST
Subj: First crewed Artemis Moon landing delayed until at
Path: IW8PGT<I3XTY<GB7COW<GB7YEW<W0ARP<VE2PKT<UA6ADV<LU4ECL<JE7YGF<JH4XSY<
IW0QNL<ON0AR<OZ5BBS<CX2SA<PI8ZTM<EI2GYB
Sent: 211112/1043Z @:EI2GYB.DGL.IRL.EURO #:17432 BPQ6.0.22
_ _ _ _
/ \ ___| |_ _ __ ___ | \ | | _____ _____
/ _ \ / __| __| '__/ _ \ | \| |/ _ \ \ /\ / / __|
/ ___ \\__ \ |_| | | (_) | | |\ | __/\ V V /\__ \
/_/ \_\___/\__|_| \___/ |_| \_|\___| \_/\_/ |___/
First crewed Artemis Moon landing delayed until at least 2025
The first crewed Moon missions since Apollo will press on, albeit at a slightly
slower pace.
By Christopher Cokinos | Published: Tuesday, November 9, 2021
NASA administrator Bill Nelson today announced a new timeline for near-term
Artemis missions, pushing back the first post-Apollo lunar landing until at
least 2025. The schedule changes were driven by budgetary constraints, COVID
delays, infrastructure and testing delays for the Space Launch System (SLS),
and more than six months of litigation related to Blue Origin's unsuccessful
legal challenge to NASA's selection of rival SpaceX as the sole winner of the
lunar lander contract.
"It's clear to me that the agency will need to make serious changes for the
long-term success of the program," Nelson said during the Tuesday briefing. He
added that the previous administration's target of a 2024 landing "was not
grounded in technical feasibility."
The new Artemis timeline
Nelson said that after next year's Artemis 1 launch - set for February or March
2022 - the next mission, Artemis 2, will take place no later than May 2024
(instead of April 2023). Artemis 2 will be the first crewed mission to visit
the Moon's vicinity in more than 50 years; however, that crew will not land.
The first crewed landing, Artemis 3, will now take place no earlier than 2025,
Nelson said. NASA still intends to land near the Moon's South Pole for that
mission.
In another startling announcement, Nelson also said that Artemis 3 will be
preceded by an uncrewed landing mission as part of the Human Landing System
(HLS) contract awarded to SpaceX. Although not entirely unexpected, this is the
first NASA declaration of commitment to an uncrewed landing. NASA officials did
not say what the mission number will be. The uncrewed landing likely allows for
more stringent tests of the reliability of the HLS, which, Nelson said, has not
had enough Congressional funding.
Nelson also stressed the need for more competition in the HLS program because,
"after all, the Chinese space program is increasingly capable of landing" their
astronauts on the lunar surface. He also vowed that NASA will be as aggressive
as safely possible with their timeline to "beat our competitors with boots on
the Moon" - a seemingly significant elevation in rhetoric.
NASA did nix the idea of a direct SpaceX Starship landing for now. But, Nelson
said, "We're glad to look at any other alternative," for future options beyond
the Orion crew capsule docking with a lunar lander.
Meanwhile, NASA is working to consolidate contracts and smooth production of
the SLS, which has been criticized for being overbudget, behind schedule, and
relying on increasingly obsolete technology in a new era of reusable rockets.
Nelson also stressed the agency's need for proper spacesuit design and
production.
James Free, associate administrator of NASA's Exploration Systems Development
Mission Directorate, highlighted additional challenges, such as adding crew
equipment in Artemis 2 and developing docking capacity.
Show me the money
Of course, all these plans, as Nelson said, depend on funding. And that funding
will have to take into account an increase in the cost of developing crewed
versions of the Orion capsule, which will ferry astronauts to the Moon (without
landing on it). Rather than a prior estimated cost of around $7 billion through
the second Artemis mission, the agency predicts the true cost will be closer to
$9 billion.
However, Free stressed that the technology being developed now - including
internationally - will serve more than just the Artemis program. That's why the
investment needs to be viewed as a down payment on later science and
exploration programs, such as crewed missions to Mars.
Indeed, Nelson said Artemis is important in order "to learn what we need to"
about humans in space "for long durations" before we venture to the Red Planet
within the century.
He did not, however, speak to the specific value of a long-term human
settlement on the Moon, which has previously been part of the agency's public
rationale.
____ __ ____ ___ _ _ ____ ____ ____ ____
( __)( )(___ \ / __)( \/ )( _ \ ( _ \( _ \/ ___)
) _) )( / __/( (_ \ ) / ) _ ( ) _ ( ) _ (\___ \
(____)(__)(____) \___/(__/ (____/ (____/(____/(____/
PART OF THE DONEGAL PACKET RADIO NETWORK
Packet: EI2GYB@EI2GYB.DGL.IRL.EURO
Email: EI2GYB@GMAIL.COM
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Read previous mail | Read next mail
| |
