NASA seeks sustainable lunar landing concepts for future missions

Before NASA sends humans to the moon this decade, they need to be able to land on the lunar surface — and that’s going to be a lot different than it was in the days of Apollo.

In preparation for this lunar return through the Artemis program, the US space agency opens a competition, through a proposal process, for a second company to develop lunar landing concepts.

In April 2021, NASA determined that SpaceX would partner with it to help land the first woman and first black person on the Moon by April 2025.

Long-term lunar exploration, through a succession of Artemis missions, will require sustainable equipment that rescues astronauts from an orbiting lunar outpost called the Gateway and brings them to the surface of the Moon. The new landing technology under Artemis will also increase crew capacity as well as the ability to transport more science and technology to the lunar surface.

Now, NASA wants SpaceX and other companies to develop landers for lunar missions in addition to the Artemis III mission, which will be the first to send humans back to the Moon.

The agency has a two-pronged approach to this. They are asking SpaceX to do additional work on landers for a second demo mission as part of their existing contract, as well as opening up a competitive opportunity for other US companies to submit their concepts for sustainable landers.

“Under Artemis, NASA will conduct a series of groundbreaking missions to and around the Moon to prepare for the next giant leap for humanity: a manned mission to Mars,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement.

“Competition is critical to our success on the lunar surface and beyond, ensuring that we have the ability to carry out a cadence of missions over the next decade. Thanks to the Biden Administration and Congress for their support of this new astronaut landing opportunity, which will ultimately strengthen and increase Artemis’ flexibility.”

The agency will draft a solicitation in the coming weeks that sets out the requirements for the lander proposals, and the second contract award will be called the Lunar Sustainable Development contract.

“This strategy accelerates progress toward long-term sustainable landing capability as early as 2026 or 2027,” said Lisa Watson-Morgan, Human Landing System Program Manager at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. , in a statement.

“We expect two companies to safely transport astronauts on their probes to the surface of the Moon under NASA’s guidance before we order services, which could result in multiple experienced vendors in the market.”

The formal request for proposals is due to be published this summer. [no hemisfério Norte]after NASA hosts a virtual industry day this spring.

More details on Artemis’ funding will be shared once the president’s budget is announced next week, Nelson said.

Artemis’ script

During a press conference Wednesday, Nelson presented an expanded outline for the Artemis program, starting with the manned lunar landing of Artemis III.

“From there, we expect approximately one human landing per year over the course of a decade,” Nelson said. “And these are not stand-alone missions. Each one will build on previous progress. The discovery and understanding that we’re looking for and what it takes to live in deep space and all of that is obviously in preparation for us to have the first human mission to Mars in the late 2030s or 2040s.”

“Introducing competition and redundancy in lunar lander development can help the Artemis program gain more flexibility,” said Jim Frey, associate administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, during the interview.

“This potentially means two companies developing landing lift capabilities and two astronaut landing missions on the Moon under the criteria we plan to use for the next decade of manned Artemis missions, in addition to the first landing, all before we request services on a recurring basis.” , said Frey.

Under the new plan announced Wednesday, SpaceX will have an unmanned as well as manned demonstration for Artemis III. In addition, SpaceX will be able to develop another lander under the new sustainability requirements, which will also have manned and unmanned versions.

Other companies will also be asked to follow sustainability requirements and come up with concepts for unmanned and manned demonstration landings, Frey said.

NASA is anticipating delivery of these probes within the 2026-2027 timeframe, Frey said.

“The purpose of the unmanned demo is to prove from a safety point of view that the landing system will be able to land safely and is therefore a critical part of the demo strategy we have in mind before we can put the crew into action. ” said Lisa.

The agency came up with the idea of ​​sustainable landers capable of carrying more crew and cargo because it wants to make the most of its time on the Moon, Lisa said Wednesday. And these uncrewed demo landings could become good opportunities to test more than just the return to the lunar surface.

Unmanned landers can also take science experiments onboard to get the most out of every landing, Lisa said. “Landings are really precious to us,” she said.