Could a Dragon spaceship transport humans to the Moon? It is complicated



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Crew Dragon Landing
Enlarge / Crew Dragon splashes into the ocean on August 2.

Bill Inglalls / NASA

On a recent Sunday afternoon, a black and white spacecraft flew through the atmosphere, ionizing molecules and creating a blaze of plasma. In the middle of this fireball, two astronauts took shelter in the small haven of Dragonship Endeavor, as his carbon-based heat shield creaked and peeled off.

After a few scorching minutes, Effort loses most of its orbital speed. Falling into the lower atmosphere, its parachutes deployed in a careful sequence, and the spacecraft floated from the blue sky towards the blue seas. Astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken were safe. They were at home. For the first time in 4.5 decades, astronauts have returned from space and plunged into the ocean, like the heroes of the Apollo era who crossed the moon.

The landing took place as NASA, under the leadership of Vice President Mike Pence, is urgently working to bring humans back to the moon by 2024. It is a Herculean task for the administrator. agency, Jim Bridenstine, who balances politics, funding and technical barriers. to move NASA and its contractors forward.

Immediately after landing, Bridenstine renewed his pitch for this Artemis Moon program at a press conference. Wearing a polo shirt featuring the Artemis logo, he said: “We have to make sure that another generation does not miss this opportunity. Today was a great victory, but it was just the start. The Artemis program is our lasting return to the Moon. “

Then Bridenstine added this comment: “If we do it right, we will get the strong bipartisan support we need.” It was clearly a nod to the funding needed to make Artemis happen. But what exactly does “getting it right” mean, anyway? Technically, that means using space hardware that can do the job. Politically, that means making choices that satisfy those in Congress who pay the bills.

When it comes to spaceships, rockets, and the Moon, these two things may not be the same.

This fracture could not be clearer when Effort splashed. The success of Crew Dragon, a relatively light, inexpensive, reusable spacecraft has led some aerospace engineers to suggest that the space agency should abandon plans to use larger and much more expensive vehicles – those defended by Congress. for more than a decade – to make the moon landing.

After its successful landing in early August, Crew Dragon has proven its worth, these defenders say. It went into space and come back with the humans inside. With a few modifications, it could be beefed up to support longer-duration missions to transport astronauts to lunar orbit and return them safely to Earth. Why wait for more expensive government vehicles when commercial solutions are already at hand?

“Do we really want to go to the moon, or not?” asked Robert Zubrin, an American aerospace engineer who founded the Mars Society. “The question for Mike Pence is quite simple: do you really want to get to the moon by 2024 or not? Because we have the tools. “

The current plan

Over the past 18 months, Bridenstine has crafted a plan that seeks to balance technical and political concerns in order to reach the Moon.

The administrator understands that the commercial space, led by SpaceX, has stepped up and delivered for NASA. He sought to include these new companies – which tend to work faster and for less guaranteed money than traditional aerospace companies such as Boeing – where possible in the Artemis program. They were allowed to bid on projects to build a lander to take humans from lunar orbit to the surface of the moon, as well as deliver cargo to the moon.

Already, some members of Congress have spoken out on this approach. Some House Democrats, including Kendra Horn of Oklahoma and Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas, have argued that commercial companies should not be allowed to build the human landing system. On the contrary, they say, NASA should design, own and operate the lander. So far, Bridenstine has been able to fight this.

But there is a red line he dares not cross. In the Senate, the influential chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Republican of Alabama Richard Shelby, said humans must launch to the moon inside the Orion spacecraft, on top of a system rocket space launch. This can generally be taken as the position of Congress. And if Bridenstine has any hope of winning Congressional funds for a lunar lander, he must follow these rules.

As part of the current plan, Bridenstine therefore shared contracts with a number of different entrepreneurs, both in traditional and commercial spaces. “I think we have a good balance,” he told Ars in an interview.

Politically, his strategy seems to be working, at least for now. While Artemis didn’t get all the funding she needs, she does get it. But what about technically? Is there any hope for 2024?

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