Well, sorta. In the 60s they went to the moon in a rickety little deathtrap. Even with a rocket that was large by modern standards, that was the best they could do.
We have higher standards now, and we want something more than flags-and-footprints. That requires a much bigger mission.
At the same time, the space-industrial complex has had 50 years to optimize how to direct funding from Congress to themselves. And they’ve become very efficient at it. SLS is a pile of garbage because of this. It is portrayed as the backbone of the mission, but it’s really more like an inflamed appendix.
The only sense in which it’s succeeded is that it has become uncancelable. And due to that, Artemis is uncancelable, since SLS has no other use.
We do have the technology to put humans back on the moon for cheaper than we did before, with both better accommodations and greater scientific results. But we aren’t quite at the point where it can be done entirely by private dollars. So Congress has to be involved, and they mandate we do it with backwards-facing technology–actually worse than nothing, even ignoring the costs. So the main question is whether there’s enough left over for private development to actually do the work.
So astronauts could be heading to the moon as soon as February.
“The administration has asked us to acknowledge that we are, indeed, in what is commonly called a second space race,” said Lakiesha Hawkins, acting deputy associate administrator, Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate. “There is a desire for us to be the first to return to the surface of the Moon. With that being said, NASA’s objective is to do so safely.”
Well, I’m excited. I know we’ve been there six times so it’s not really history at all, but I was born 15 years after the last Apollo mission so I get to see a moon landing in real time.
I was already born the first time, but I hope that the live feed will be made in high resolution and in colour this time.
I am also very curious about the new conspiracy theories: how stupid will they manage to be, and how many fools will fall for them? Will they enjoy it?
Given that there is now worry that the Chinese will beat the U.S. to the moon in the next few years:
Duffy emphasized that he believes SpaceX, which has a $2.9 billion contract to provide the lunar lander astronauts would ride to the moon’s surface, is lagging behind schedule, potentially thwarting NASA’s efforts to return humans to the moon before China amid a new space race.
“They push their timelines out, and we’re in a race against China,” Duffy told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Monday morning, referring to SpaceX’s development of Starship — the vehicle the company plans to use as a lunar lander for NASA. “So, I’m going to open up the contract. I’m going to let other space companies compete with SpaceX.”
Blue Origin is the obvious alternative, but Sean is planning to open competition to other companies as well.
The German Handelsblatt believes Musk has screwed up, but Bezos will not arrive on time to beat the Chinese. But the Chinese may still stumble all on their own (very short summary, with slightly exagerated schadenfreude):
Including:
Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy announced that he would be re-tendering an important contract for the Artemis lunar program—a setback for SpaceX. Elon Musk’s company had been awarded the contract in 2021 to develop the landing module for the Artemis 3 mission for $2.9 billion.
Ulrich Walter, former professor of aerospace engineering at the Technical University (TU) of Munich, also said: “It’s good that NASA is looking for another supplier for lunar landers, but now it’s too late; they should have done that ten years ago.” According to Walter, Blue Moon cannot solve the problems either: “Its New Glenn rocket, which is supposed to take their lunar lander to the moon, is just as unready for use as Starship.”
and
The architecture is so complex, said former NASA chief Bridestine at a US Senate hearing a few weeks ago, that he could not understand how the decision had been made. “Instead of buying a lunar landing module, they ordered a large rocket.” Bridestine was visibly outraged and said, “It’s a problem we need to solve.”
(lazily translated with DeepL, no evident correction needed)
If this megalomaniac incompetence finally tanks tesla’s share price it is fine by me.
