We’ve all heard about NASA’s Artemis mission.
Artemis has the goal to send the first woman and next man to the lunar surface by 2024, this time to stay and build a Moon Base.
They are already testing their Space Launch System (popularly known as SLS) to send astronauts to the moon’s orbit.
But they also awarded SpaceX two major contracts which include Falcon Heavy to launch the Lunar Gateway and Starship as the lunar lander.
First, let’s talk about the recent one, that is, Starship as the lunar lander.
Lunar Lander helps astronauts land on the moon, this needs to be very lightweight because sending a one-kilogram mass to the moon requires almost 200 kilograms of the rocket to get up there.
On April 30, 2020, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced that three American companies have been selected to design and develop a next-generation human-rated lunar lander intended to take American astronauts back to the moon by 2024.
And recently, they chose SpaceX for this lander.
NASA was expected to pick two companies to receive contracts for the first Moon landing mission since the Apollo program.
The move to go with just SpaceX signals NASA’s confidence that the company can build a version of Starship that is capable of landing on the moon.
Selecting a single contractor also means that NASA can attempt to get back to the moon on the budget Congress has approved, as SpaceX’s $2.9 billion bid was substantially less expensive than the competing proposals
So, why Starship?
Well, as said in many of our previous videos, Starship is the most ambitious rocket ever which is being tested in Boca Chica, Texas.
The full rocket will consist of two pieces: a 230-foot-tall booster called Super Heavy, and a 165-foot-tall upper stage called Starship.
But SpaceX's lunar lander version might require some changes in order to achieve its goal on the Moon.
Starting in December 2020, SpaceX has launched five prototypes of the Starship rocket on high-altitude flight tests, varying from 10 to 15 kilometers.
The recent one named SN15 performed the best of all in the Belly Flop maneuver and landed successfully.
NASA said that its award requires SpaceX to perform an uncrewed demonstration of a lunar landing before shuttling people to the moon.
To know more about Starship, click on the ‘i’ button or check the description below.
Now let’s look at Falcon Heavy which will be used to launch the Lunar Gateway.
Lunar Gateway is a planned small space station in lunar orbit intended to serve as a solar-powered communication hub, science laboratory, short-term habitation module, and holding area for rovers and other robots.
Gateway will be the first mini-space station to be both human-rated, and autonomously operating most of the time in its early years, as well as being the first deep-space station, far from Low Earth orbit.
This will be enabled by more sophisticated executive control software than on any prior space station, which will monitor and control all systems.
On the 9th of February 2020, NASA announced that it has awarded SpaceX a $331 million contract to launch the first two pieces of the Gateway lunar outpost in 2024 using a modified version of the Falcon Heavy rocket to hurl the massive core of the deep space station towards the moon.
The Gateway’s Power and Propulsion Element (PPE), and Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) will launch in tandem no earlier than May 2024 aboard the Falcon Heavy rocket from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The contract, awarded by NASA’s Launch Services Program at Kennedy, includes the Falcon Heavy launch and other mission-related costs.
But why Falcon Heavy?
Well, that’s because of the price and reliability.
At around 330 million dollars for a single launch for these two elements, it’s too cheap considering SLS’s single launch cost can be more than a billion dollars.
And also this payload is around 11 metric tonnes and SLS can transfer about 26 metric tonnes to lunar orbit.
In other words, SLS is just too big and too expensive for this small payload.
Also, SpaceX might be one of the most convincing of all in the rocket industry when it comes to reliability.
I mean, think of all the things they have done till date...
So, these are two factors that explain ‘Why SpaceX is the key to success of Artemis?’.
Next up on DiscoverZen, let’s discuss - “How would SpaceX make Rocket fuel on Mars?”.
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