posted 03-26-2019 12:32 PM               

NASA to land astronauts on moon within 5 years, says VP Pence

Citing a new space race against complacency and the need for a renewed sense of urgency, Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday (March 26) announced that it is now United States' policy to return astronauts to the surface of the moon by 2024 using "any means necessary."

Pence, speaking at the fifth meeting of the National Space Council while standing under an Apollo Saturn V rocket at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, said that landing astronauts at the moon's south pole within the next five years is "the next giant leap" for America.

"Fifty years ago, one small step for man became one giant leap for mankind," said Pence. "Now has come the time for us to make the next giant leap and return American astronauts to the moon, establish a permanent base there and develop the technologies to take American astronauts to Mars and beyond."

posted 03-26-2019 05:17 PM               

Seriously, I've lost count.

posted 03-26-2019 06:02 PM               

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Originally posted by p51:
So, how many times in recent years have we been promised this...

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Past administrations have set time frames and others have set the moon as a goal (in fact, the moon was already the goal before today's speech), but none have made it all about a date until today.

posted 03-26-2019 06:34 PM               

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Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
Now the ball is in NASA's court to respond.

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Today, I joined leaders from across the country as Vice President Mike Pence chaired the fifth meeting of the National Space Council. Vice President Pence lauded President Donald J. Trump's bold vision for space exploration and spoke to NASA's progress on key elements to accomplish the President's Space Policy Directives.

Among the many topics discussed during our meeting at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, was to accelerate our return to the Moon:

• NASA is charged to get American astronauts to the Moon in the next five years.
  
• We are tasked with landing on the Moon's South Pole by 2024.
  
• Stay on schedule for flying Exploration Mission-1 with Orion on the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket next year, and for sending the first crewed mission to the lunar vicinity by 2022.
  
• NASA will continue to 'use all means necessary' to ensure mission success in moving us forward to the Moon.

It is the right time for this challenge, and I assured the Vice President that we, the people of NASA, are up to the challenge.

We will take action in the days and weeks ahead to accomplish these goals. We have laid out a clear plan for NASA's exploration campaign that cuts across three strategic areas: low-Earth orbit, the Moon, and Mars and deeper into space.

I have already directed a new alignment within NASA to ensure we effectively support this effort, which includes establishing a new mission directorate to focus on the formulation and execution of exploration development activities. We are calling it the Moon to Mars Mission Directorate.

Earlier today I was also at Marshall Space Flight Center for an all-hands to reinforce our commitment to SLS with the workforce. We discussed my recent announcement that NASA would consider all options to fly Orion around the Moon on schedule. I shared the analysis we conducted to assess flying the Orion on different commercial options. While some of these alternative vehicles could work, none was capable of achieving our goals to orbit around the Moon for Exploration Mission-1 within our timeline and on budget. The results of this two-week study reaffirmed our commitment to the SLS. More details will be released in the future.

There's a lot of excitement about our plans and also a lot of hard work and challenges ahead, but I know the NASA workforce and our partners are up to it. We are now looking at creative approaches to advance SLS manufacturing and testing to ensure Exploration Mission-1 launches in 2020. We will work to ensure we have a safe and reliable launch system that keeps its promise to the American people.

I know NASA is ready for the challenge of moving forward to the Moon, this time to stay.

posted 03-26-2019 06:34 PM               

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Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
Now the ball is in NASA's court to respond.

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Now he is being tasked, quite boldly, to not only solve those problems but also go off and design, build, test and pay for a new lunar lander. Not a small feat under the current budget, let alone one which allows this schedule to be accelerated.

The target landing area is interesting too. Does this mean the Gateway will be situated in a lunar polar orbit? While that would allow exploration of countless locations, what implications does this have for upmass from the surface?

posted 03-26-2019 10:07 PM               

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Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
There have been no deadlines of this type set by anyone since Kennedy's "before this decade is out." That is what makes this newsworthy.

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posted 03-27-2019 06:31 AM               

NASA's Advanced Cislunar and Surface Capabilities program is focused on developing "a reusable human lunar landing architecture utilizing innovative public-private partnerships." Under the budget request, the program would receive $363 million in 2020, but looking at the out-year projections, the program would grow to $2.36 billion by 2024.

posted 03-28-2019 11:37 AM               

On 17 January 2019 ESA signed a study contract with Comex and its partners DITF and OeWF. Pextex is a two-year project to identify materials and textiles that could be used for future lunar mission space suits.

The project aims to develop solutions that could be based on existing space suit materials, but also identify novel types of textiles with self-healing functions or repulsing lunar dust and smart textiles for example.

posted 03-28-2019 06:24 PM               

Please join the Administrator for this important discussion on our Moon to Mars plans.

posted 03-28-2019 08:05 PM               

Should the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft be the platform used for this type of mission, at this time, the number of flights will be restricted by the number of available rocket motors and engines.

Such an announcement could be the impetus to direct funding into development of the SLS system and a more forward for the larger, heavy lift version. But as pointed out above by others, the funding does not reflect the words being touted.

It may be a case where one hand does not know what the other is doing, in this case, a return to the moon budget and a mission to Mars budget, are considered two different buckets of federal money. It may not be until all the players in the US space program want the same thing that any real movement happens.

I hope this latest statement is not just saber rattling and does, in fact, lead to a well defined and scheduled plan of attack for future spaceflight.

posted 04-08-2019 10:48 AM               

...this new proposal holds some promise. Pence, as well as NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, have adopted a clear goal for the agency and promised enduring political support. Moreover, they have said the "end" matters more than the "means." This suggests that whatever rockets and spacecraft NASA uses to reach the Moon, the plan should be based on the best-available, most cost-effective technology. In short, they want to foster a healthy, open competition in the US aerospace industry to help NASA and America reach its goals.

At a town hall meeting Monday [April 1] for space agency employees, Bridenstine characterized the Moon 2024 initiative as a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for NASA." This may be a tad hyperbolic, but it does represent a rare chance for the sprawling bureaucratic federal agency — whose human exploration programs have been adrift for decades—to embrace a brighter future.

Therefore, this marks an important, if uncertain, moment in US spaceflight. To understand how we got here and where we're going, Ars has talked with a dozen well-placed sources in the aerospace industry, from new space companies and large aerospace contractors to senior NASA leaders and political insiders. Most of them are not named due to their sensitive positions; many of them see challenges ahead.

posted 04-08-2019 07:04 PM               

In this role, Mark will have broad responsibility to work across the Mission Directorates to further develop the agency's plans for the Exploration Campaign. This includes a strategy to meet the Administration's policy to return astronauts to the lunar surface by 2024. He will also lead the planning for the proposed agency restructuring to create the Moon to Mars Mission Directorate that will manage the programs to develop the Gateway, human rated lander and surface systems to return to the moon and establish a permanent presence. The new proposed Directorate will also manage the Exploration Research and Technology programs to enable capabilities required for exploration of the moon, Mars and beyond.

posted 05-01-2019 09:12 AM               

He said that, in a best-case scenario, EM-1 would launch in late 2020, "but probably more than likely some time in 2021." A crewed test flight, EM-2, would follow in 2022, a date he said likely would not be affected by the EM-1 schedule. EM-3 would then carry out the initial lunar landing mission.

...the plan also makes use of a minimal version of a lunar Gateway. Gerstenmaier said NASA was moving ahead with the Power and Propulsion Element, evaluating proposals submitted by industry in November. A selection, he said, should come this summer, with the unit launched by the end of 2022.

The only other element of the Gateway planned prior to a 2024 lunar landing is "some kind of docking/habitation small module," he said. "That is all that is needed to essentially support a lunar landing."

...Gerstenmaier said that the approach for a human lunar landing in 2024 is minimalistic. "I would say, for the initial 2024 landing, it's going to be pretty Spartan," he said when asked about the development of spacesuits for lunar excursions. "We're looking at what the minimum is we need for suits to go out and do things. We're going to keep that as small and as lean as we can."

"It's not pretty. There will not be a ton of time on the surface on this first flight," he said. "You're going to see a pretty minimalist kind of mission for that 2024 mission because of the constraints."

posted 05-01-2019 05:37 PM               

The only other element of the Gateway planned prior to a 2024 lunar landing is "some kind of docking/habitation small module," he said. "That is all that is needed to essentially support a lunar landing."

Okay, the Orion capsule launched without a human crew about ten years after it was announced with no date known when (or even if) it will be manned.

Does anyone here really believe that we'll see humans bound off a modern LM onto the surface, a craft that doesn't exist on paper yet?

posted 05-01-2019 07:08 PM               

With this in mind I do not get why there is a need to re-invent the wheel regarding the lander at this stage, and why an upgraded version of the 1960's Grumman vehicle is not under consideration.

Taking a design that has been flight tested in Earth orbit, has made six successful lunar landings, and been used as a life boat for three crew members, surely must count in favor for this design.

Upgrading the instrumentation, computers and navigation systems, using modern structural materials, and using modern tools and machinery to streamline construction methods would be a faster and more cost effective route, rather than going down the clean sheet design path.

The inclusion of the Gateway is a great idea. Gateway enables missions to any region of the lunar surface, while also acting as a safe haven. With several countries showing interest in achieving a South Lunar Pole landing, Gateway is a necessary element for NASA's plan.

However, if a lunar landing is planned for the third SLS flight, NASA would not have many main engines or solid rocket boosters left in its inventory to make subsequent flights or launch a rescue mission.

Using a new design lunar lander on its maiden flight, crewed, to attempt a landing at a lunar pole site, and incorporating Gateway into such a plan would be a great engineering feat. Crews who agree to ride on such a mission would definitely be made from the "right stuff." But today, risk assessment matrix and review boards may well hinder such a bold move.

posted 05-01-2019 09:42 PM               

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Originally posted by oly:
Using a known design may lower the risk level slightly.

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NASA's focus though, as defined by the White House, is to have an architecture that is sustainable, i.e. reusable. So the ascent stage may need a transfer vehicle of some type to move it between low lunar orbit and where the Gateway will be staged.

It also may mean needing it to be a more robust spacecraft, capable of withstanding extended periods docked with the Gateway.

posted 05-02-2019 01:00 AM               

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Originally posted by Mike Dixon:
You'd have to wonder how much weight a 21st century LM would be compared to the 60s and 70s Grummans.

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Weight savings would be found in the instrumentation, electrical and avionics systems as well as reduced pressure vessel weights via the use of composite cylinders.

The landing gear design may also benefit via the use of composite materials, and modern battery technology and the use of solar panel technology could also allow for longer duration visits. Lessons learnt from the ISS environmental control systems could be adapted to also allow longer duration missions.

The weight of the equipment carried along could be reduced somewhat, many of the instruments and equipment left on the lunar surface could be made lighter today.

quote:

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Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
It also may mean needing it to be a more robust spacecraft, capable of withstanding extended periods docked with the Gateway.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
That is, if the priority is going to the moon to stay. If the goal is only to meet a certain politically-driven date, then the end result may be something that looks like Apollo-lite, with even less capability than we had 50 years ago.

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