{"id":12845,"date":"2019-11-09T23:39:05","date_gmt":"2019-11-09T15:39:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/boeing-proposes-sls-launched-lunar-lander\/"},"modified":"2019-11-09T23:39:05","modified_gmt":"2019-11-09T15:39:05","slug":"boeing-proposes-sls-launched-lunar-lander","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/boeing-proposes-sls-launched-lunar-lander\/","title":{"rendered":"Boeing proposes SLS-launched lunar lander"},"content":{"rendered":"

EDITOR\u2019S NOTE: <\/strong>Updated Nov. 10 to correct references to ascent and descent stage functions.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Artist\u2019s concept of Boeing\u2019s lunar lander taking off from the moon. Credit: Boeing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Boeing is touting a lunar lander concept that the company claims could launch in one piece on an upgraded version of NASA\u2019s Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket \u2014 which Boeing largely builds \u2014 and deliver astronauts to the moon\u2019s surface in 2024 without going through NASA\u2019s planned Gateway mini-space station.<\/p>\n

The lunar lander proposal submitted by Boeing to NASA is one of multiple concepts proposed by U.S. industry. Companies had to send in their lunar lander proposals to NASA by Tuesday, Nov. 5, on an accelerated timetable to meet the Trump administration\u2019s goal of landing astronauts on the moon\u2019s south pole by the end of 2024.<\/p>\n

Details of two of the lunar lander proposals have been revealed.<\/p>\n

Blue Origin, the company established billionaire Jeff Bezos, is partnering with Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Draper to develop a three-component lunar lander that could launch on commercial rockets, such as Blue Origin\u2019s own New Glenn booster. Boeing is taking a different approach, proposing to launch a lunar lander on a single flight of the Space Launch System.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you try to carve that (lander) up into smaller pieces, some of the smaller pieces don\u2019t work on some of the existing commercial launchers, so we ended up backing into an architecture that really works best using the largest rocket possible,\u201d said Peter McGrath, director of global sales and marketing for Boeing\u2019s space exploration division.<\/p>\n

Boeing builds the SLS core stage, and NASA has charged Boeing with developing an upgraded Exploration Upper Stage to upgrade the SLS\u2019s lift capability. The uprated SLS, known as the Block 1B configuration, could launch Boeing\u2019s lander on a single flight, according to McGrath.<\/p>\n

Boeing argues that using the SLS Block 1B to launch the lunar lander on a single launch \u201creduces the complexity and risk of sending multiple segments to orbit on multiple launches.\u201d The company said its proposal enables a crewed landing on the moon requiring only five \u201cmission critical events instead of the 11 or more required by alternate strategies,\u201d where individual lander elements would rendezvous together near the moon and be assembled robotically.<\/p>\n

In its solicitation for Human Landing System proposals, NASA requested companies propose commercially-developed vehicles, in which the contractors would be responsible for designing, building and launching the landers. Commercial operators would then fly the landers to an orbit near the moon for the rendezvous of an Orion crew capsule carrying NASA astronauts, who would board the landers for descent to the lunar surface.<\/p>\n

In parallel with work on the human-rated landers, the SLS and Orion crew capsule, NASA is moving forward with plans to build a mini-space station near the moon. The combined lunar exploration initiative is named Artemis, after the twin sister of Apollo in Greek mythology.<\/p>\n

The first piece of the Gateway station, known as the Power and Propulsion Element, is being built by Maxar for launch by the end of 2022. A Northrop Grumman-built mini-habitation module would join the Gateway after a launch in late 2023, setting the stage for the arrival of a landing craft in 2024, followed by the docking of an Orion crew capsule on the Artemis 3 mission with the lunar landing crew.<\/p>\n

The Gateway is slated to fly in an elliptical near rectilinear halo orbit, taking the complex as close as 1,000 miles (1,500 kilometers) and as far as 43,500 miles (70,000 kilometers) from the moon. NASA selected the orbit because it allows a continuous communications link with Earth, and landers departing from the Gateway can reach any place on the lunar surface with only modest propellant usage.<\/p>\n

McGrath said Boeing determined the most effective way to land astronauts on the moon in 2024 is to develop a lander with just two elements \u2014 without a orbit transfer module \u2014 that could achieve its mission with or without NASA\u2019s planned Gateway station in lunar orbit.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an ascent element and a descent element, where the descent element actually performs the function of all the transfer to get you from the halo orbit that Gateway or Orion are in, all the way to the surface of the moon,\u201d McGrath said in an interview with Spaceflight Now. \u201cThen the ascent element is capable from taking you from the south pole all the way back to rendezvous with the Gateway or Orion.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Artist\u2019s concept of Boeing\u2019s lunar lander launching on the Space Launch System. Credit: Boeing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe way we\u2019ve sized it, you avoid needing a third element, which really simplifies the architecture because you really have one rendezvous in space instead of a ballet of rendezvous (operations) in space,\u201d McGrath said. \u201cWith the ascent (and) descent elements flying integrated on one launch, our architecture also offers a lot of flexibility in the sense that we can either dock directly with Orion or we can dock with the Gateway, whichever NASA prefers.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd in the case the Gateway is delayed, it doesn\u2019t delay your (Artemis 3) launch in \u201924,\u201d McGrath said. \u201cSo it really allows you to do the minimal number of maneuvers and dockings to actually get to the surface of the moon.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur architecture still assumes that we\u2019re all arriving in the near rectilinear halo orbit, so we\u2019re all going to that same orbit and doing all the maneuvers off that orbit to the surface,\u201d McGrath said.<\/p>\n

McGrath said NASA will eventually need the Gateway to enable a more \u201cextensible architecture\u201d for exploration of the lunar surface.<\/p>\n

Boeing\u2019s proposal makes an assumption about the readiness of the Exploration Upper Stage that, so far, NASA has not been comfortable making in its Artemis mission planning.<\/p>\n

The first three Artemis flights are planned to use a base configuration of the Space Launch System known as the Block 1. The SLS Block 1 rocket will fly with Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stages, each utilizing a single RL10 engine. The EUS will be powered by four RL10 engines, giving the SLS Block 1B the capability to deliver more than 81,000 pounds, or about 37 metric tons, on a direct trajectory toward the moon.<\/p>\n

The lunar lift capabilities of other commercial launchers NASA expects to be available in 2024 \u2014 such as SpaceX\u2019s Falcon Heavy, Blue Origin\u2019s New Glenn, and United Launch Alliance\u2019s Vulcan Centaur \u2014 do not match that of the SLS. But the exact lift capabilities to the moon for those rockets have not been publicly disclosed.<\/p>\n

NASA still plans to introduce the Exploration Upper Stage for the SLS in the mid-2020s, but agency officials say using commercial rockets for the Gateway and lunar lander elements will be less expensive than upgrading the SLS and increasing the SLS launch rate.<\/p>\n

In a September congressional hearing, Ken Bowersox, then the acting head of NASA\u2019s human spaceflight division, said the space agency considers upgrading the SLS to the Block 1B configuration with the EUS as \u201can important future capability.\u201d He added that \u201crecent performance issues and delays\u201d in Boeing\u2019s manufacture of the first SLS core stage forced NASA to prioritize the completion of future SLS core stages to establish an annual SLS\/Orion launch cadence leading up to the Artemis 3 lunar landing mission.<\/p>\n

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Artist\u2019s concept of the Boeing lunar lander docked at the Gateway. Credit: Boeing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cost is also among NASA\u2019s concerns with launching Gateway or lunar lander elements on the Space Launch System. One cost estimate, included in a letter recently sent by the White House to the Senate Appropriations Committee, puts the cost of a single SLS launch at more than $2 billion, according to Ars Technica.<\/p>\n

The launch prices of commercial rockets like the Falcon Heavy, New Glenn and Vulcan Centaur are a fraction of that of the Space Launch System.<\/p>\n

In the same letter, the White House said that NASA\u2019s lunar exploration program \u2014 as currently envisioned \u2014 \u201crequires every SLS rocket available.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIndustry has looked at this, and we believe there\u2019s not an issue with actually having a Block 1B available in 2024,\u201d McGrath said. \u201cIt\u2019s really just about prioritization to get it there. It\u2019s definitely not a development timeline constraint. We felt we could get one as early as July of \u201924, which is kind of what we\u2019re targeting as a launch date.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boeing would have to pay for the cost of the SLS launch of its lunar lander, money that would be built in to the company\u2019s lunar lander contract with NASA, assuming Boeing is a winner in the HLS competition.<\/p>\n

McGrath said Boeing could assess other commercial launch alternatives for the lander if the SLS Block 1B is not available in 2024. For example, the Boeing lander\u2019s descent element could theoretically launch on an SLS Block 1 rocket \u2014 with the single-engine upper stage \u2014 and the lander\u2019s ascent module could launch separately on a commercial rocket, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting a descent element of any size on a commercial launcher becomes a constraint, which is what drove us toward SLS,\u201d McGrath said. \u201cDepending on what the actual (commercial) launch performance numbers are, which are not known right now, we could look at that, but the baseline right now is SLS, and that\u2019s where the right performance needs to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGrath said Boeing is considering at least two potential subcontractors to provide propulsion systems for the company\u2019s lunar lander.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur typical propulsion partner tends to be Aerojet Rocketdyne,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are looking at alternate sources, too, depending on their maturity, but there are some off-the shelf engines that we\u2019re looking at from Aerojet Rocketdyne, that are flying on commercial crew, so existing engines.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boeing is looking at storable hypergolic propellant systems for the engines on the 2024 lunar landing mission, McGrath said. Blue Origin\u2019s lunar lander concept would be fueled by cryogenic methane, a higher-performing fuel than the hydrazine used in hypergolic systems.<\/p>\n

McGrath said Boeing is currently planning to cluster multiple orbital maneuvering and attitude control engines on the ascent and descent elements of the lunar lander. The engines come from the company\u2019s Starliner commercial crew capsule program.<\/p>\n

But that could change. McGrath stressed Boeing is still finalizing the lander design.<\/p>\n

Boeing\u2019s lander would be capable of carrying a two-person crew to the lunar surface in 2024, meeting the requirements set in NASA\u2019s solicitation for a Human Landing System. Future landers could include reusable ascent modules and cryogenic engines, McGrath said.<\/p>\n

Boeing is partnering with Intuitive Machines, a Houston-based startup, on cryogenic propulsion and flight software for lunar landing applications. Intuitive Machines is one of two companies under contract to NASA to fly robotic landers to the moon in 2021.<\/p>\n

Besides the possible application of Starliner engines, the Boeing lunar lander will utilize technology from the Boeing 702 spacecraft bus, which is used as a platform for commercial and military communications satellites, and will use flight computers from the Space Launch System.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it\u2019s going to have a lot of flight heritage behind it, which gives us high confidence of being able to do this in a compressed schedule,\u201d McGrath said.<\/p>\n

NASA is waiting on a final fiscal year 2020 budget appropriation from Congress before deciding how ambitiously the agency can proceed with the lunar lander procurement.<\/p>\n

The White House in May requested a $1.6 billion budget augmentation as a \u201cdown payment\u201d for the accelerated Artemis lunar landing program, which aims to move up NASA\u2019s schedule for a crewed moon landing from 2028 to 2024. About $1 billion of that budget is dedicated to kick-starting development of human-rated lunar landing craft.<\/p>\n

NASA would require additional funding for lunar landers in subsequent years.<\/p>\n

NASA officials hope to select at least three commercial lunar lander concepts for 10-month study contracts, then down-select to two providers to develop landing spacecraft for missions in 2024 and 2025.<\/p>\n

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said last month that an appropriation from Congress of less than $1 billion for lunar landers in 2020 would reduce the chance of achieving a crewed return to the moon\u2019s surface within five years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe might not be able to have multiple companies competing at the same time for that Human Landing System,\u201d Bridenstine said, referring to the consequence of a Senate funding bill that would provide NASA with $744 million of the requested $1 billion for Human Landing Systems in 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd what we find historically is that when we don\u2019t have multiple companies competing, we end up with cost overruns, schedule delays,\u201d Bridenstine said in an interview with Spaceflight Now. \u201cAnd in many cases, it costs more money, not less money. Of course, we also miss out on the dissimilar redundancy, which is good. If there is a setback, we can keep moving forward with a different partner. So all of these things reduce the probability of success, but I\u2019m not saying that we can\u2019t be successful.\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 Nov. 10 to correct references to ascent and descent stage functions. Artist\u2019s concept of Boeing\u2019s lunar lander taking off from the moon. Credit: Boeing Boeing is touting a lunar lander concept that the company claims could launch in one piece on an upgraded version of NASA\u2019s Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket \u2014 which […]<\/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":[864,304,670,291,2401,800,1545,2043],"class_list":["post-12845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-aerojet-rocketdyne","tag-artemis","tag-boeing","tag-commercial-space","tag-exploration-upper-stage","tag-human-landing-system","tag-human-spaceflight","tag-lunar-lander"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12845"}],"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=12845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12845\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}