Bezos to the Moon: Blue Origin joins SpaceX and Dynetics in a three-horse lunar lander race
- Reference: 1588338909
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/01/lunar_lander/
- Source link:
The combined contract award of a cool near-billion dollars over the 10-month base period will be split between Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, Dynetics and SpaceX.
Big News! The [3]#Artemis generation is going to the Moon to stay. I’m excited to announce that we have selected 3 U.S. companies to develop human landers that will land astronauts on the Moon: [4]@BlueOrigin , [5]@Dynetics & [6]@SpaceX . [7]https://t.co/mF6OzFqJJC [8]pic.twitter.com/nuMQlDIyGS — Jim Bridenstine (@JimBridenstine) [9]April 30, 2020
Two of those will also be making use of United Launch Alliance's (ULA) upcoming Vulcan launch system while the third continues to make big promises about its [10]Starship , which seems to have taken a break from regular explosions and implosions during ground tests.
There was no love for Boeing, however, which has challenges of its own in getting NASA's monster [11]Space Launch System rocket to the launchpad .
Blue Origin's pitch is a "national team" with Lockheed Martin dealing with the ascent element of the lander, Draper handling the guidance and navigation systems and Northrop Grumman taking care of transfer duties. Bezos' crowd will be responsible for the descent portion of the system, with a lander powered by Blue Origin's BE-7 engine.
The first uncrewed demonstrator is due in 2023, with humans bounding about the surface once more in 2024 should everything go to plan.
[12]NASA's Source Selection Statement for the Human Landing System (HLS) rated Blue Origin as "Acceptable" on the technical side and "Very Good" for management. However, even though $579m is due to be slung Blue Origin's way, the selection board worried that "this system is comprised of multiple relatively low technology readiness level (TRL) systems that will be challenging to manufacture, integrate, and test."
Dynetics scored higher, rated as "Very Good" in both categories, and leads a team with more than 25 subcontractors aimed at producing a [13]launcher-agnostic, low-slung design . It nabbed $253m of the pot.
SpaceX scored $135m, with the selection statement rating it as "Acceptable" both technically and in management terms. However, the report worried that the proposed propulsion system was "notably complex" and did not address the potential for delays particularly well. The company plans to use its Super Heavy Booster to launch a Starship vehicle, which will perform the lunar landing.
At the end of a 10-month period of monitoring and review, NASA will likely whittle the field down further to those it reckons stand the best chance of meeting the increasingly ambitious 2024 deadline. ®
Sponsored: [14]How to Build Your Digital Experience Portfolio
[1] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/01/27/moon_2028/
[2] https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-names-companies-to-develop-human-landers-for-artemis-moon-missions
[3] https://twitter.com/hashtag/Artemis?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[4] https://twitter.com/blueorigin?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[5] https://twitter.com/Dynetics?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[6] https://twitter.com/SpaceX?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[7] https://t.co/mF6OzFqJJC
[8] https://t.co/nuMQlDIyGS
[9] https://twitter.com/JimBridenstine/status/1255902514542718976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[10] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/28/space_roundup/
[11] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/03/11/nasa_space_launch_system_audit/
[12] https://www.nasa.gov/nextstep/humanlander2
[13] https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-selects-blue-origin-dynetics-spacex-for-artemis-human-landers
[14] https://go.theregister.co.uk/tl/1936/-8578/how-to-build-your-digital-experience-portfolio?td=wptl1936
Re: Blue Origin will deal with the descent stage
In my part of the solar system, we usually get a text a few days after the package has been returned to sender due to inability to contact recipient.
I assume that means the minions at the delivery office or the drivers are unable to operate telephones.
Bezos and BO have little credibility with even getting stuff into orbit yet, let alone out of orbit and beyond. Strange decision all round, but I'm betting SpaceX will do more with their small cut than any of the others will. BO is all talk and little action, but they still stand more chance of getting off the ground than the SLS!
BO is all talk and little action
Blue have plenty of credibility. Launch Complex 36, the engine factory in Alabama and the New Glenn production factory have seen massive progress. The action is happening and all heading towards launches.
How many successful launches have they made? (I know the answer.)
Nothing else counts for credibility when you're a launch company.
Really only two runners
> Two of those will also be making use of United Launch Alliance's (ULA) upcoming Vulcan launch system
Both Blue Origin and Dynetics are critically dependent on the Vulcans. So really the race is between SpaceX and an outfit that have yet to lift anything off the ground.
[1]The maiden flight is planned to take place in July 2021 [ wiki ]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulcan_(rocket)
LOL, just look at the difference in size between the SpaceX proposal and the other two
Add to that fact that the SpaceX one looks like it would be the only one to return all of the craft back to earth (And potentially reuse it)
About the only downside I see to the SpaceX proposal is that if that lift breaks down, you are royally buggered
Res: SpaceX lift
Some kind of backup ladder seems appropriate. Maybe rungs that emerge from the hull like a Tesla door handle.
Not so much. It's easy enough to fall back to a rope ladder, or even just a rope - remember that there's only 1/6G on the Moon, so it's only the equivalent of lifting a 15kg load. Somewhat tiring if you have to do all day, to be sure, but nothing too impossible.
Coming down a rope should be OK, but going up again may be another story.
Climbing a rope in a space suit is almost certainly very hard work because it would mean just using your hands, which are in pressurised gloves that are trying to keep your fingers straight rather than helping to keep them gripped round a rope. IOW, a ladder should be OK, but I wouldn't want to be the poor SOB trying to climb a rope all the way back up that monster, let alone doing it with a sackful of moon rocks over his shoulder. Having your feet in hard moon boots won't help either.
However, I suspect its highly unlikely that a Space-X lander sitting on the moon will look anything like that picture: something like that would have fallen over about 10 seconds after 'engine off'. Any lander will need a much larger and more widely spread set of landing legs than the Falcon 9 uses because its going to land on an unimproved mixture of rocks and dust, not a nice hard, level landing pad or the equally solid deck of a robot landing ship.
This Starship is staying near the moon
Congress has a gun pointed at NASA's budget so Astronauts will be launching in an Orion on an SLS and returning to Earth in that Orion. SLS is not powerful enough to get to low Luna orbit so NASA needs a ride from near-rectilinear halo orbit to the Moon and back.
A fully refuelled starship in low Earth orbit cannot land on the moon and get back to the surface of the Earth. If Starship refuels in a highly elliptical orbit it can almost go to the Moon and back - but the fuel tanker has to be refuelled before it can reach that orbit. Add the stops at NRHO to dock with Orion to pick up and return the crew then a normal Starship cannot meet NASA's requirements.
The plan is to use a modified Starship with no flaps or heat shield. This Moonship cannot return to Earth but it can go to NRHO, land on the Moon and return to NRHO. A normal tanker Starship could get refuelled in a highly elliptical orbit, go to NRHO, refuel the Moonship and return to Earth.
The Moonship mission sidesteps the big certification problems that will otherwise delay a normal passenger Starship: Launching a crew with no launch abort system, re-entry with a new thermal protection system, getting velocity down to subsonic while falling like a skydiver, a belly flip to get the engines pointing down and a retro-propulsive landing. It will be a long time before NASA is happy to put a crew on a mission with all those exciting activities but in the mean time Starship tankers can RUD without killing anyone until SpaceX get it all working reliably.
Just an idle thought, the size of the starship door looks to be big enough to get a moon buggy through.
I know its high up but its a lot easier get a buggy down from there to the surface than a getting a Falcon from 60 mile up onto a barge.
Most of the cash is going into repeating the Apollo missions, go there, wave a flag, come home. The 60s was an incredible decade for technology & space flight but this seems a bit limp after the 30 years of shuttle & 20+ of ISS.
Apart from SpaceX, a proposal that looks a lot like they could just aim a bit to the side and head to Mars thanks to the orbital tankers.
Blue Origin will deal with the descent stage
No doubt landing in a crater, with a note through the door to tell you where your lander has been left...