{"id":12502,"date":"2020-05-01T00:04:08","date_gmt":"2020-04-30T16:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/companies-release-new-details-on-human-rated-lunar-lander-concepts\/"},"modified":"2020-05-01T00:04:08","modified_gmt":"2020-04-30T16:04:08","slug":"companies-release-new-details-on-human-rated-lunar-lander-concepts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/companies-release-new-details-on-human-rated-lunar-lander-concepts\/","title":{"rendered":"Companies release new details on human-rated lunar lander concepts"},"content":{"rendered":"

EDITOR\u2019S NOTE: <\/strong>Updated May 1 with details from Blue Origin.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Artist\u2019s illustration of SpaceX\u2019s Starship on the lunar surface. Credit: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The next time astronauts land on the moon, they will ride to the lunar surface in a spacecraft that looks a lot different than the Apollo-era landing module last used in 1972. Lander concepts proposed by SpaceX, Blue Origin and Dynetics \u2014 which won a combined $967 million in NASA funding Thursday \u2014 take wildly different approaches to carrying crews to the moon.<\/p>\n

SpaceX has offered a version of its giant Starship vehicle to land NASA astronauts on the moon, while Blue Origin and Dynetics lead industrial teams working on more conventional lander concepts. NASA is expected to pick one of the lander concepts to attempt a crewed mission to the lunar surface as soon as 2024, the first in series of moon expeditions planned during the space agency\u2019s Artemis lunar program.<\/p>\n

Each of the three Human Landing System, or HLS, concepts are designed to help NASA achieve its goal of returning astronauts to the moon. Each landing vehicle would take off from Earth without people on-board, then would rendezvous with NASA\u2019s Orion crew capsule, which will blast off the Kennedy Space Center in Florida with NASA astronauts on top of NASA\u2019s heavy-lift Space Launch System rocket.<\/p>\n

But the similarities end there.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have three notably different architectures, from a one-stage, a two-stage and a three-stage architecture,\u201d said Lisa Watson-Morgan, NASA\u2019s HLS program manager at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. \u201cThat achieves the innovations and the dissimilar redundancy in approaches that we wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blue Origin won 60 percent of the total funding amount awarded by NASA Thursday. According to NASA, the contract values are:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Blue Origin: <\/strong>$579 million<\/li>\n
  • Dynetics: <\/strong>$253 million<\/li>\n
  • SpaceX:<\/strong> $135 million<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    The funding only covers a 10-month \u201cbase period\u201d in the Human Landing System contract scheme. NASA plans a continuation review in February 2021, during which agency officials will likely select two of the three companies to continue with full-scale lander development efforts. But NASA has not ruled out continuing with all three concepts.<\/p>\n

    \u201cEach company proposed a little bit different that they needed to do on their designs during the base period,\u201d said Doug Loverro, associate administrator of NASA\u2019s human exploration and operations mission directorate. \u201cThey all proposed different amounts of money in order to go ahead and get that work done.\u201d<\/p>\n

    In NASA\u2019s fiscal year 2021 budget request, the space agency laid out a funding profile that called for spending $18.4 billion in federal funding on human-rated lunar landers through 2024. NASA says each lunar lander contractor is providing private funding to support the HLS effort, alongside federal money.<\/p>\n

    The overall program to land astronauts on the moon by the end of 2024 is projected to cost some $35 billion over the next five years, according to NASA budget documents.<\/p>\n

    \"\"
    Artist\u2019s illustration of an Orion spacecraft at the moon. Credit: Lockheed Martin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    Congress has, so far, approved $600 million for the crewed moon lander initiative, short of the $1 billion the Trump administration asked for in 2020, but more than NASA has received for a lunar landing craft since the last Apollo moon mission in December 1972.<\/p>\n

    It\u2019s not clear how much funding lawmakers will appropriate to the Artemis moon program in 2021 as Congress weighs spending priorities amid the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n

    \u201cI don\u2019t see NASA, our budget being cut because of this,\u201d NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said Thursday. \u201cWhen you look at the amount of money being spent, the NASA budget is really small compared to the federal budget. And certainly, we\u2019re not going to be the solution to balancing the budget.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Even more importantly, there\u2019s no appetite right now to cut spending because spending is how the economy is continuing to move forward, and members of Congress on both sides of the aisle have expressed that to me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

    The lander is the final critical vehicle NASA needs to return astronauts to the moon. The Trump administration last year directed NASA to land a crew on the moon\u2019s south pole by the end of 2024, four years earlier than previously planned.<\/p>\n

    The directive forced NASA to speed up procurement of a human-rated lunar lander, and the agency modeled the streamlined program on the public-private partnerships used to develop commercial cargo and crew taxis for the International Space Station.<\/p>\n

    NASA didn\u2019t require it, but all three prospective lunar lander builders plan to conduct unpiloted test flights of their moonships before astronauts fly them.<\/p>\n

    Other elements of the Artemis program\u2019s moon mission architecture include the Orion crew capsule, the SLS rocket, and the Gateway mini-space station, a crew-tended science outpost NASA plans to assemble in high lunar orbit.<\/p>\n

    The Gateway is unlikely to be used for the first Artemis moon landing flight.<\/p>\n

    \u201cIn all architectures, the Orion capsule with the crew are launched on an SLS \u2026 and meet up with the Human Landing Systems at the moon,\u201d Loverro said. \u201cFor the first mission, we\u2019re doing that just directly between Orion and the Human Landing System. For the follow-on missions, we will then use Gateway as the intermediary.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Starship receives NASA backing<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

    SpaceX\u2019s next-generation Starship spacecraft could carry massive payloads to the moon. Stripped of its steering fins and heat shield, the Starship variant proposed for NASA\u2019s moon program would build on SpaceX\u2019s ongoing work with prototypes at the company\u2019s South Texas launch site.<\/p>\n

    \u201cSpaceX proposed the Starship,\u201d Bridenstine in an interview with Spaceflight Now. \u201cIt\u2019s obviously a very different solution set than any of the others. But it also could be absolutely game-changing. So we don\u2019t want to discount it. We want to move forward. If they can have success, we want to enjoy that success with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

    The Starship would take off in a single launch on top of SpaceX\u2019s planned reusable Super Heavy booster.<\/p>\n

    SpaceX said the Starship tailored for Artemis missions will not fly with a heat shield of landing flaps used for return to Earth. Instead, the vehicle would remain in space for multiple trips between the moon\u2019s surface and lunar orbit.<\/p>\n

    \u201cWith large habitable and storage volume, Starship is capable of delivering significant amounts of cargo for research and to support robust operations on the lunar surface to enable a sustainable moon base,\u201d SpaceX tweeted.<\/p>\n

    SpaceX has its own ambitions for the Starship program. Using private funds, SpaceX has built a series of Starship prototypes at Boca Chica, Texas. After clearing a pressure test earlier this week, a Starship test vehicle could be test-fired in the coming days ahead of a 500-foot (150-meter) up-and-down hop test.<\/p>\n

    By itself, the Starship vehicle will stand around 160 feet (50 meters) tall with a diameter of roughly 30 feet (9 meters), dwarfing the other human-rated lunar lander concepts. It will land and take off vertically, powered by Raptor engines each capable of generating nearly a half-million pounds of thrust at full power.<\/p>\n

    Once in orbit after separation from its Super Heavy booster \u2014 which returns to Earth \u2014 the Starship is designed to be refueled in space, enabling it to carry people and cargo to the moon, Mars and other solar system destinations. Two other Starship-derived vehicles \u2014 a tanker and a propellant storage vehicle \u2014 would launch into orbit to deliver the fresh propellant to the Starship lunar lander, which would then propel itself toward the moon.<\/p>\n

    \u201cUtilizing parking orbit refueling, Starship is able to deliver unprecedented payload mass to a variety of Earth, cislunar, and interplanetary trajectories,\u201d SpaceX wrote in a Starship user\u2019s guide.<\/p>\n

    NASA officials said SpaceX\u2019s lunar lander bid called for using the Starship without going through the Gateway. Instead, the Starship would dock directly with NASA\u2019s Orion crew capsule.<\/p>\n

    The plan to launch the Starship from Earth without a crew could reduce pressure to human-rate the Starship\u2019s Super Heavy booster vehicle.<\/p>\n

    \u201cThe SpaceX design is a single-stage solution using their Starship concept,\u201d Watson-Morgan said Thursday. \u201cIt provides extensive volume for the crew with two airlocks and ample down-mass capability. It can land up to 100 tons of cargo on the moon. It builds off their Falcon and Dragon heritage. The SpaceX proposal included in-space propellant transfer demonstrations, and an uncrewed lunar test landing.\u201d<\/p>\n

    SpaceX\u2019s new $135 million contract with NASA is the largest government investment in the Starship program to date. Under previous multibillion-dollar NASA contracts, SpaceX has developed cargo and crew ferry ships for the International Space Station.<\/p>\n

    SpaceX\u2019s first piloted space mission, with two NASA astronauts on-board, is scheduled for liftoff on top of the company\u2019s Falcon 9 rocket May 27 from the Kennedy Space Center. The Crew Dragon capsule will transport the astronauts to the space station for several months, the first orbital spaceflight to take off from U.S. soil since the retirement of the space shuttle.<\/p>\n

    Elon Musk, SpaceX\u2019s founder and CEO, thanked NASA for the support.<\/p>\n

    \u201cI think we\u2019ve got a potential for an incredibly exciting future in space with a base on the moon and ultimately sending people and having a self-sustaining city on Mars,\u201d Musk said Thursday. \u201cThat\u2019s an incredibly exciting that\u2019s possible, and the support of NASA is very much appreciated.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Last year, SpaceX signed an agreement with NASA to use the Starship to potentially carry robotic rovers, science experiments and other cargo to the moon\u2019s surface. Now it could carry people.<\/p>\n

    \"\"
    A variant of SpaceX\u2019s Starship vehicle without fins or heat shielding required for return to Earth could land NASA astronauts on the moon. Credit: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    Blue Origin receives lion\u2019s share of lunar lander money<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

    Blue Origin is teaming with Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Draper to build an Integrated Landing Vehicle, or ILV.<\/p>\n

    Draper will lead development of the lander\u2019s avionics and guidance systems, while Northrop Grumman will supply a transfer stage based on that company\u2019s Cygnus space station supply ship. Blue Origin, the prime contractor, will oversee the development of a descent stage to perform a precision landing with the astronauts.<\/p>\n

    The descent stage will be powered by Blue Origin\u2019s BE-7 engine, a deeply throttleable engine fed by cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants.<\/p>\n

    Lockheed Martin will build an ascent stage derived from work on the Orion crew capsule to boost the crew off the moon\u2019s surface back to a mothership in lunar orbit, and will also lead crewed flight operations and training, according to Blue Origin. The ascent module could eventually be reused for multiple trips to the moon\u2019s surface and back.<\/p>\n

    Elements of Blue Origin\u2019s Integrated Lander Vehicle would launch on the company\u2019s own New Glenn rocket and United Launch Alliance\u2019s next-generation Vulcan Centaur rocket, according to NASA.<\/p>\n

    \u201cThis truly is a noble endeavor with a serious purpose, so we have assembled a highly-accomplished national team,\u201d said Bob Smith, Blue Origin\u2019s CEO. \u201cThis is the kind of thing that\u2019s so ambitious that it needs to be done with partners. It\u2019s the only way that we can get back to the moon fast, in my view.<\/p>\n

    \u201cOur team has been working well together for over a year now, and we\u2019re well on the path with the heritage we have from work on Orion, on Cygnus, on New Shepard, and on our BE-7 engine,\u201d Smith said. \u201cWe\u2019re ready to go to work, and we\u2019re going to go do everything in our power to move quickly to get us to the moon safely, and without sacrificing the ability to go there in a sustainable fashion.\u201d<\/p>\n

    The Blue Origin spacecraft looks most similar to NASA\u2019s Apollo lunar lander, which flew with two-stage design consisting of descent and ascent modules. The additional transfer element proposed by Blue Origin is required to maneuver the lander and crew from the Orion spacecraft or the Gateway station in high lunar orbit to a lower altitude in preparation for landing.<\/p>\n

    The Orion spacecraft does not have the propulsive capability to directly inject itself into a low lunar orbit, shifting some of the required maneuvers to the lander itself.<\/p>\n

    Blue Origin says it will perform an uncrewed test landing of the vehicle\u2019s descent stage on the moon in 2023, ahead of the first Artemis landing with astronauts.<\/p>\n

    The lander\u2019s individual elements could be launched individually on commercial rockets, or combined to launch on NASA\u2019s Space Launch System, a company official said.<\/p>\n

    \"\"
    Artist\u2019s illustration of Blue Origin\u2019s human-rated lunar lander. Credit: Blue Origin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    Dynetics assembles broad lunar lander team<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

    The Dynetics Human Landing System, or DLHS, would launch as a single structure providing ascent and descent capabilities, according to NASA.<\/p>\n

    Based in Alabama, Dynetics released an artist\u2019s illustration of its human-rated lander in January that shows a large pressurized compartment, two large propellant tanks and power-generating solar panels extending vertically from spacecraft on the lunar surface.<\/p>\n

    \u201cThe Dynetics design is a two-stage architecture with a common ascent and descent element, and anytime abort capability,\u201d Watson-Morgan said. The Dynetics lander has a low-slung crew module, \u201cputting the crew very close to the lunar surface for safe access,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

    \u201cDynetics will perform a demonstration flight to verify key capabilities for its lander systems,\u201d Watson-Morgan said.<\/p>\n

    According to Dynetics, the company\u2019s lander concept \u201cenables near-term reusability and sustainability and provides a robust, commercially supported lander capability, while boasting flight-proven technologies for habitat, power, thermal and other subsystems.\u201d<\/p>\n

    The lander could accommodate two crew members for \u201cnominal missions\u201d from lunar orbit to the lunar surface and back, including a week-long stay on the moon, Dynetics said in a press release.<\/p>\n

    The company said the lander\u2019s elements could be launched on United Launch Alliance\u2019s Vulcan Centaur rocket. Alternatively, the Dynetics moonship could be launched in a single piece on NASA\u2019s Space Launch System Block 1B rocket, which will have an upgraded four-engine upper stage to replace the single-engine cryogenic upper stage on the early SLS flights.<\/p>\n

    Dynetics said its lunar lander team is located in 17 U.S. states and one international country. Major parts of the lander will be built, tested and integrated at a Dynetics facility in northern Alabama.<\/p>\n

    The Dynetics-led consortium includes more than 25 companies, including ULA, Sierra Nevada Corp., Maxar Technologies, Draper and Thales Alenia Space of Italy.<\/p>\n

    \u201cThe Dynetics team recognizes the gravity and the responsibility that accompany this opportunity, and we\u2019ve assembled an experienced team of government and industry partners with flight-proven technology,\u201d said Kim Doering, Vice President of the Dynetics space division. \u201cWe\u2019re all looking forward to helping NASA achieve the 2024 goal of returning U.S. astronauts to the lunar surface, and we\u2019re really excited about enabling a long-term commercial lunar economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

    \"\"
    Artist\u2019s concept of the Dynetics proposal for a Human Landing System. Credit: Dynetics<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    Over the next three months, NASA and each lander team will begin discussing the designs and kick off supply chain purchases of long-lead parts, according to Watson-Morgan.<\/p>\n

    \u201cThey\u2019re all three substantively different, so they will each have different philosophies,\u201d she said. \u201cThey have proposed different tests and all that. So part of the traditional side of NASA is that we perform insight. One of the first things we are going to review is the verification and validation plan \u2026 How are we going to make sure these systems are certifiable for humans?\u201d<\/p>\n

    \u201cIn the first three months, this is far more than just studies,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to encompass deep design development, long lead procurements for each of the awardees.<\/p>\n

    \u201cAll that will occur before the February timeframe, so we know quickly \u2026 which one has the best shot of making 2024. So initially we\u2019re going to get in with them elbow to elbow, virtually at this point, and review the design and construction standards,\u201d she said. \u201cThose are the standards that tell the engineers how to assemble (the spacecraft) \u2014 fracture control, looking at the strength and life assessment, crimping and all that. We\u2019re going to get down and make sure, in the first three months, we are ready to start, and they aren\u2019t going to be any later quibbles about what standards we\u2019re going to use, and how we\u2019re going to do this.<\/p>\n

    \u201cSo that\u2019s going to culminate into giving us all the information and data that we need to make an intelligent selection,\u201d Watson-Morgan said.<\/p>\n

    Bridenstine said NASA\u2019s \u201cbaseline solution\u201d is to launch the components of the lunar landers independently, then assemble the components together in lunar orbit using automated rendezvous and docking technology.<\/p>\n

    SpaceX\u2019s Starship is an exception to that plan because it launches from Earth in a single piece, other than the refueling freighter in Earth orbit needed to replenish its propellant supply before heading to the moon.<\/p>\n

    \u201cThat being said, as we go through this base period, we might find out that we need an integrated lander,\u201d Bridenstine said. \u201cAnd if we do need an integrated lander and one of our partners wants to integrate it on the surface (of the Earth), then the question is how do you get that to the moon. If you have an integrated lander that weighs 40 metric tons, you might need a heavy-lift rocket, for example. That would require the SLS.<\/p>\n

    \u201cSo the solution set is really open at this point, but at the same time we know that the companies that have made proposals have their own ideas,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat we\u2019re looking forward to in this base period is working with them to very specifically define the requirements to achieve the outcome, that gives us the highest probability of success and the lowest risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

    Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    EDITOR\u2019S NOTE: Updated May 1 with details from Blue Origin. Artist\u2019s illustration of SpaceX\u2019s Starship on the lunar surface. Credit: SpaceX The next time astronauts land on the moon, they will ride to the lunar surface in a spacecraft that looks a lot different than the Apollo-era landing module last used in 1972. Lander concepts proposed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[304,708,509,670,291,1604,2065,419],"class_list":["post-12502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-artemis","tag-artemis-3","tag-blue-origin","tag-boeing","tag-commercial-space","tag-draper","tag-dynetics","tag-gateway"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12502"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12502\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}