ESA: Fly me to the Moon, just not on a Russian rocket
- Reference: 1649933318
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/04/14/esa_council/
- Source link:
It said yesterday that a "fundamental change of circumstances... make it impossible for ESA to implement the planned lunar cooperation."
ESA's ExoMars project was already [2]put on hold last month as bosses ponder how to get the completed rover to the red planet without the Proton rocket they had expected to launch it on in September.
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This is unfortunate since, according to the agency, every component (launcher, carrier module, descent module and the Rosalind Franklin rover itself) had passed their flight-readiness reviews. A "fast-track" study of alternative launch options, led by the Franco Italian joint venture Thales Alenia Space, is underway, but things aren't looking too rosy for the [4]Rosalind Franklin rover at the moment.
Moon shot
More news for scientists has emerged from ESA's council meeting on April 13 concerning the agency's lunar ambitions. Plans were afoot to fly ESA gear on the upcoming Luna-25, 26 and 27 missions, but the sanctions imposed on Russia required a hasty rethink, since the planned cooperation is very much a no-no.
Luna-25, expected to launch in August this year, is a robotic Moon lander intended for the lunar South Pole and is named for the glory days of the Soviet lunar program that ended in the 1970s; Luna-24 was a sample return mission that launched in August 1976, successfully returning lunar soil samples to Earth later that month. It would be 2020 before the next samples made it back to Earth, [5]courtesy of China's Chang'e 5 probe .
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In terms of the payloads being pulled, a navigation camera known as PILOT-D (originally planned for Luna-25) is now likely to fly on a commercial service provider and the PROSPECT lunar drill and analysis package planned for Luna-27 will now fly on a NASA-led Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) mission. Luna-27 was aiming for an August 2025 launch, indicating how far ahead ESA is looking.
The announcement came in the wake of a delay for ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti's launch to the International Space Station (ISS.) Cristoforetti is one of the four astronauts due to launch aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon on the Crew-4 mission, which will now lift off no earlier than April 23.
[8]The Register gets up close and personal with ESA's JUICE spacecraft
[9]NASA astronaut returns to Earth on a Russian Soyuz
[10]Russia's Mir space station returned to Earth 21 years ago
[11]NASA taps Lockheed Martin to build Mars parcel pickup rocket
The turnaround time does, however, remain impressive. The Crew Dragon of the Axiom Space Ax-1 mission got off the pad less than a week ago, on April 8. The Register understands the launch was greeted with relief in some quarters, not least because Ax-1 was blocking the pad ahead of Cristoforetti's flight.
As for the payloads planned for Russian spacecraft, veteran Russian space industry observer and writer, Anatoly Zak, [12]remarked that with the shift to a US carrier for the drill at least, "the instrument actually has better chances of getting to the lunar surface."
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On April 12, Russian social media orifices [14]tweeted out a message that Russia was to resume its lunar program.
Just without ESA cooperation, it would seem. ®
Get our [15]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.esa.int/Newsroom/Press_Releases/Redirecting_ESA_programmes_in_response_to_geopolitical_crisis
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/17/exomars_suspended/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YlhFM0ZhK1J1Cucs-H2IHwAAAIw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2019/02/08/exomars_renamed_spacex_delay/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2020/12/17/change5_china_moon_samples/
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YlhFM0ZhK1J1Cucs-H2IHwAAAIw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YlhFM0ZhK1J1Cucs-H2IHwAAAIw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/11/esa_juice_visit/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/30/nasa_vande_hei_return/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/23/mir_deorbit/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/08/mars_ascent_vehicle_contract_awarded/
[12] https://twitter.com/RussianSpaceWeb/status/1514230883196231685
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YlhFM0ZhK1J1Cucs-H2IHwAAAIw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://twitter.com/GazetaRu/status/1513795710344380416
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: "Russia was to resume its lunar program"
Yeah, first thing I thought when I saw that a couple of days ago was "at a time like this, that's a distraction, not a serious proposal".
Though as others have suggested, it could be a cover for Russia trying to restart its long range missile programmes. Or simply a kneejerk response to an anticipated move like this, i.e. Russia doesn't need the ESA, will restart its own lunar programme with blackjack and hookers.
Re: "Russia was to resume its lunar program"
" that's a distraction "
I think "delusion" might be a more appropriate word.
Solo a space-mano
Not that I particularly care about Russian gubbermint initiatives, but how can they run a space program? The tragedy in Ukraine seems all out, minus aerial war (were there any dogfights? I could be wrong). Isn't that a lot of money these days?
I suppose I'm wondering if a space-program is emergent of a domestic or a wartime economy? How much gold do they have?
Russian lies are so much fun to unravel.
If the Ruskies want it...
There's a guy a few doors up from me with one of those garden trampolines. I'm sure my neighbour would sell his trampoline to Putin if Putin fancies getting what's left of the Russian space program back on track. A manky, rusty old trampoline is probably better than most of the kit the Russians have now and probably launch them closer to whatever stellar object they want to reach to "de-Nazify" when they get there!
Right now Putin makes Trump look almost sane!
I suspect SpaceX is one of the few, if not the only provider with spare launch capacity on hand.
Benefit of reuse, compared to building a rocket from scratch for every single launch.
That's of course if SpaceX has a rocket able to send out that payload (I understand size / shape / weight plays a part is making sure a rocket is suitable or not, with payloads designed to suit the selected rocket usually).
It's good from an European point of view, because it shows that Europeans have to rely on themselves first. Dependence is bad.
With Vega and Ariane, Europe has already two launchers. There's no need of a Russian one.
May be also time to think about renaming the lunar missions, doesn't it?
Crew flights delay
Crew 4 was being held up by Axiom 1, that in turn was being held up by the wet dress rehersal for SLS which encountered numerous problems and delays. NASA didn't want launches from HLC-39A while SLS was still out on NSHLC-39B, but eventually blinked.
"Russia was to resume its lunar program"
Oh, they're going to launch a Sputnik III then ?
A lunar program requires an amount of money that Russia does not seem to have at the moment.