NASA’s New Human Landing System ===> SpaceX

2 responses to “NASA’s New Human Landing System ===> SpaceX”

1. 

   jurvetson

   Apr 17, 2021 at 12:18 am

   Also in NASA’s Video Announcement… fromtoAnd CNBC used my photo from December

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2. 

   jurvetson

   Apr 25, 2021 at 2:58 pm

   Here’s a nice summary of why the Lunar Starship is a game changer for NASA in Ars Technica:

   "NASA awarded SpaceX $2.89 billion for these two missions. But this contract would balloon in amount should NASA select SpaceX to fly recurring lunar missions later in the 2020s. And it has value to SpaceX and NASA in myriad other ways. Perhaps most significantly, with this contract NASA has bet on a bold future of exploration. Until now, the plans NASA had contemplated for human exploration in deep space all had echoes of the Apollo program. NASA talked about "sustainable" missions and plans in terms of cost, but they were sustainable in name only. By betting on Starship, which entails a host of development risks, NASA is taking a chance on what would be a much brighter future. One in which not a handful of astronauts go to the Moon or Mars, but dozens and then hundreds. In this sense, Starship represents a radical departure for NASA and human exploration.

   "One of the hardest engineering problems known to man is making a reusable orbital rocket," SpaceX founder Elon Musk told me about a year ago. "It’s stupidly difficult to have a fully reusable orbital system." [this is from the author’s new book Liftoff]

   After seeing SpaceX launch more than 100 rockets over the last decade, what has become abundantly clear is that its engineers are now the best in the world at designing, building, and flying new and innovative rockets. Suddenly, human landings on Mars about a decade from now seem a lot more realistic.

   SpaceX is already capable of building one Starship a month, and the plan is to reuse each booster and spacecraft dozens of times. Imagine the kind of space program NASA could have with the capacity to launch 100 tons into orbit every two weeks—instead of a single annual mission—for $2 billion a year. Seriously, pause a moment and really think about that.

   With Starship, SpaceX has offered what appears to be the best technical solution to NASA’s stated goal of a sustainable lunar exploration program. Starship would be able to take far more people and cargo to the Moon than any other solution for NASA—and it could do the job for far less money and far more often.

   Technically, Starship may be the best solution to NASA’s needs. But politically, would it be? Probably not. If NASA wants to go to the Moon and beyond, it must work with a multitude of contractors and countries, at least for now.

   Ultimately, physics will win out. If SpaceX can make Starship work, eventually NASA’s other options for human exploration of the Solar System may come to look ridiculous by comparison. By placing an early bet on Starship last week, NASA has increased the ultimate odds of Starship’s success. For the space agency, this is an audacious and surprising play. But the potential payoff is huge. One day it may allow us to boldly go not just back to the Moon, but far, far beyond."

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