After years of development and countless rocket and crew capsule tests, NASA has almost all the material needed to send astronauts to the moon.
For the first time since the Apollo program, NASA buys a new lander for its Artemis program.
“When I see this, it just gives me goosebumps,” Lisa Watson-Morgan, who runs the show, told Mark Strassmann of CBS News as she walked through the Apollo lander on display at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. .
The Apollo lunar module, built by Grumman, was actually two spacecraft in one. The lower half, the descent phase, lowered the vehicle and its crew to a gentle landing.
When it came time to go home, the ascent stage transported the crew to their orbiting capsule.
“We’re definitely building Apollo. We’re saying, ‘Okay, let’s see what they did, well, we live in a different time.’ What makes sense to us today, what makes sense to NASA, and what will help us have a more sustained presence? said Watson-Morgan.
Unlike Apollo, NASA will not own the Artemis landing system. Instead, he will buy a landing service, choosing from three dramatically different proposals. He space agency it is expected to be chosen from three designs this month.
One such proposal is from Blue Origin, founded by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. He is leading a team of aerospace companies that created an integrated design.
Brent Sherwood, vice president of Advanced Development Programs at Blue Origin, told Strassmann, “The goal is to learn how to operate there permanently.” That’s why Blue Origin’s propulsion system relies on water because ice at the south pole of the moon It could one day become rocket fuel.
“Both hydrogen and oxygen are available in the moon in the form of ice in the polar regions. And our vision is based on developing these lunar resources in the future to make these systems reusable instead of bringing it all from Earth, ”Sherwood said.
SpaceX, by Elon Musk, proposes a lander based on its Starship design. Now the company is testing it in Texas. Outside, an elevator-like system would lower astronauts to the surface.
There is another approach to Dynetics, based in Huntsville, Alabama. It has a low-pitched horizontal layout and the crew hatches just eight feet from the ground.
“It’s one of the highlights of our design … We like to say that when Neil Armstrong came out of this lander and said‘ A small step for man, a giant leap ’, I didn’t really want it to be literally a giant leap, ”said Jonathan Pettus, Dynetics executive.
He toured CBS News with a mock-up of his company.
“And what else would Neil and Buzz not recognize?” Strassmann asked.
“Well, first of all, they wouldn’t recognize so much space. It’s twice the size they were,” Pettus said.
“If you win, what would it mean for the company,” Strassmann asked.
“Sure, it’s fantastic from a business standpoint, but ultimately, that ability to play a role in that kind of nation’s treasure, the space program … you know, you can’t put a price on it. Pettus replied.
The Apollo lander successfully delivered a dozen Americans to the moon. Now NASA has to choose: what design will land the next American moonwalkers?
“How do you balance maintaining a formula that you know works, instead of opening up to new ways of doing things?” Strassmann asked.
“Well, because if you’ve always done what you’ve done, you’ll always get what you have!” Watson-Morgan said. “I mean, you know, we have to try new things … I definitely mean, it would be anti-American not to try something new, right?”