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NASA has formally recruited tech billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos to return humans to the Moon in 2024.
The independent space agency revealed Thursday that it had awarded $ 967 million in deals to three American companies in connection with their Artemis project: Musk’s SpaceX, Bezos’ Blue Origin, and IT firm Dynetics.
The three companies will submit competitive designs for a human landing system to be used in NASA’s Artemis project, and will only be paid once they meet specific development milestones.
“We are on the way,” said Douglas Loverro, associate administrator for NASA. “With these awards we begin an exciting partnership with the best in the industry to achieve the nation’s goals. We have a lot of work ahead of us, especially during these next critical 10 months. I am very confident that working with these teammates we will be successful. ”
Artemis is NASA’s attempt to establish a sustainable human presence in space. In addition to sending men (and women!) To the moon for scienceNASA hopes that the technology developed for Artemis will allow humans (and robots!) To travel deeper into space than ever before.
Sorry Bezos, but SpaceX is building a real spaceship
Blue Origin, led by Amazon founder and the world’s richest man Jeff Bezos, will develop a three-stage landing vehicle for the mission. The firm will focus on its descent element, which will be powered by Blue Origin’s own cryogenic engines.
Largest aerospace firms Draper, Lockheed Martin, and Northrup Grumman will handle the vehicle’s avionics, charging, and refueling systems.
The Musk rocket company, SpaceX, has a much cooler target: the spacecraft, a fully reusable spacecraft to transfer the crew between lunar orbit and the bloody moon.
The spacecraft design includes “a spacious cabin,” NASA said, and two airlocks for moonwalks astronauts.
SpaceX has been selected to develop an optimized lunar spacecraft to transport the crew between the lunar orbit and the surface of the Moon as part of @POTThe Artemis program! https://t.co/FRmwWisKfH pic.twitter.com/z1bkUrQMK8
– SpaceX (@SpaceX) April 30, 2020
Over the next 10 months, companies will refine their concepts, after which NASA will select contractors to participate in initial demonstration missions.
Don’t tell Musk: Funds aren’t secured for NASA’s Artemis project, either.
All this means that Artemis ever takes off. While the Trump White House originally ordered NASA to send humans to the Moon by 2024 as a “tester” for future missions to Mars, Congress has yet to approve the corresponding funding in its entirety.
In June last year, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine told CNN that NASA needs an estimated $ 20 to $ 30 billion. Above last year’s budget of $ 21.5 billion for the next five years if Artemis succeeds.
For now, Bridenstine appears confident that Congress will finally give NASA the necessary funds, and said at Thursday’s press conference: “It is important that this agency do so. [Artemis] now, because our country and, in fact, the entire world has been rocked by this coronavirus pandemic. And yet we have to give people hope. “
“We have to give them something they can admire, [to] dream with “.
Posted on May 1, 2020 – 12:23 UTC
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