NASA needs private sector help to land astronauts again on the moon – BGR

When NASA landed for the first time on the Moon, several decades ago, astronauts, the case was entirely the responsibility of the government. The United States was in the midst of a space race with their rivals abroad and not being up to the challenge was simply not an option. Nowadays things are very different for NASA and cooperation with other countries has been vital.

As NASA prepares to revisit the moon over the next decade, the space agency is contacting the private sector in the hope of streamlining the development of technologies that will allow astronauts to travel.

In a new blog post, NASA is inviting companies to participate in the search for reusable systems that will allow astronauts to reliably deliver to the lunar surface and bring them home safely. The agency wants to build a sustainable system "for round trips to the surface of the moon," including what she calls the gateway.

The bridge will be a space station positioned in orbit around the Moon and will serve as a starting point for missions to and from the surface. The bridge will be much smaller than the international space station, but will still allow the crew to stay on board for up to three months.

With the bridge in service, NASA plans to travel much more easily to the moon, astronauts recovering materials on the lunar surface to make rocket fuel:

The use of the catwalk to land astronauts on the Moon helps create the first building blocks for fully reusable lunar landers. Initially, NASA expects two of the undercarriages to be reusable and refueled by cargo ships carrying fuel from the ground to the bridge. The agency is also working on technologies to manufacture rocket propellants using ice-water and regolith of the moon. Once the ability to harness Moon's propellant resources becomes viable, NASA plans to replenish these badets with the Moon's own resources. This process, called in situ resource utilization or ISRU, will make the third element also plug-in and reusable.

All of this is obviously still in its conceptual beginnings, but NASA wants to turn the wheels as quickly as possible. While SpaceX has quickly become a major partner of NASA, this new call for cooperation with the private sector could bring new faces to NASA and give the agency the boost it needs. to send the man back to the moon.