NASA really is stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to its lunar plans. Its SLS system is a disaster, but pork barrel politics means it can’t ditch it. So it lives on, zombie-like, to suck the life and money out of better options.
Meanwhile, it’s placed all its eggs in a SpaceX basket. That company is run by someone who routinely exaggerates timelines for delivery and fails to meet them. Guess what? It’s happening again. A commenter on the OP article sums up what SpaceX has to do before humans can go back to the Moon.
* Re-light Starship engines
* Achieve stable orbit
* Dock with another Starship
* Transfer propellant
* Use transferred propellant
* Dock with Orion and/or Dragon
* Design a life support system for a volume much larger than Dragon
* Build life support system
* Test life support
* Achieve escape velocity for TLI
* Demo propulsive landing on Luna
* Demo takeoff from Luna after sitting idle
* Dock with Gateway (?) up and down
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The moon will still be there in thirty years. (Hope NASA makes it that long.)
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Submission Statement
NASA really is stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to its lunar plans. Its SLS system is a disaster, but pork barrel politics means it can’t ditch it. So it lives on, zombie-like, to suck the life and money out of better options.
Meanwhile, it’s placed all its eggs in a SpaceX basket. That company is run by someone who routinely exaggerates timelines for delivery and fails to meet them. Guess what? It’s happening again. A commenter on the OP article sums up what SpaceX has to do before humans can go back to the Moon.
* Re-light Starship engines
* Achieve stable orbit
* Dock with another Starship
* Transfer propellant
* Use transferred propellant
* Dock with Orion and/or Dragon
* Design a life support system for a volume much larger than Dragon
* Build life support system
* Test life support
* Achieve escape velocity for TLI
* Demo propulsive landing on Luna
* Demo takeoff from Luna after sitting idle
* Dock with Gateway (?) up and down
The moon will still be there in thirty years. (Hope NASA makes it that long.)