Author Topic: Aerospace Companies Compete to Build Lunar Landers for NASA’s Project Artemis  (Read 467 times)

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Offline Elderberry

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IEEE Spectrum By Ned Potter 12/31/2019

After 50 years of lamenting that America had abandoned the moon, astronauts are in a rush again, trying to go back within five—and NASA has asked aerospace companies to design the lunar landers that will get them there. The project is called Artemis, and the agency is now reviewing proposals to build what it calls the Human Landing System, or HLS. In January, it says, it will probably select finalists.

NASA had said a landing was possible by 2028. Then, the White House said to do it by 2024.

“Urgency must be our watchword,” said U.S. Vice President Mike Pence when he announced the new deadline in March 2019. “Now, let’s get to work.”

Of course, nothing much will work if Congress doesn’t approve the US $20 to $30 billion NASA says Artemis could cost. Ask around the space community and people will say a 2024 landing is “aspirational.”

Nevertheless, aerospace companies—including Blue Origin, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, SpaceX, and many others—are hard at work. The procurement process is a closed one; the agency will not say how many proposals it has received or what they include. But at one point, NASA says, it counted 64 “interested parties” asking about building the HLS or components for it.

“We’re relying on competition to help make this cost-effective,” says Nantel Suzuki, the program executive for the HLS at NASA. “To the extent the contractors can find efficiencies, they’ll reap the benefits.”

More: https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/aerospace/space-flight/aerospace-companies-compete-to-build-lunar-landers-for-nasas-project-artemis