] Somewhere inside the sprawling spacecraft of the United States A new team of NASA engineers has begun designing a spacecraft to send astronauts back to the surface of the moon's first visit since the glory days of the 1960s.
The Study Group Lander, as it's called inside NASA, put its first ideas on paper in recent weeks – that's what emerged from a NASA presentation seen by Popular Mechanics What is most exciting about this nascent work is that the new lunar lander will not be a one-and-done like that of Apollo 11. This 21st century lander will make a round trip.
Announcement – Continue reading below
Presentation of the Reusable Lunar Lander [19659] 008] image "title =" image "clbad =" lazyimage lazyload "data-src =" https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod .s3.amazonaws.com/images/imp-leader- 1-1540315209. jpg? crop = 1xw: 1xh; center, top & resize = 480: * "/>
A mock-up model of the reusable lunar lander. [19659010] Anatoly Zak
In this presentation, the team of engineers NASA has announced plans to design a reusable crew cabin for the undercarriage, equipped with its own propulsion system.This part of the ship is called the climb phase. crew from the lunar surface to lunar orbit (the step of the descent is to bring the astronauts to the moon safely and, as for the Apollo program, this step would be left behind). [19659011] reusable lander, the Lunar Gate could suddenly be much more multidimensional for scientists, engineers and nerds of space.
The idea of a reusable lander is the fact that NASA and its partners international organizations are already designing a small station for lunar orbit which will be visited by the crews at least once a year from the mid-2020s. The idea is that the lunar lander docked with what we call the lunar footbridge and stays there waiting for the arrival of a new crew aboard NASA's Orion spacecraft.
With a reusable lander, the lunar bridge could suddenly be much more multidimensional for scientists, engineers and space nerds. Instead of just working aboard the door in the void of space part of the Orion crew can board the LG and the make an exit on the lunar surface.
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Between man and the moon
Lunar Landing of the Apollo 12 Mission.
Getty Images NASA
Though the Idea of a Reusable Lander has a logistical sense, major technical problems arise.On the one hand, the entrance gate will rest on a giant lunar orbit shaped egg that, although good for some cases, does not Is not the most convenient place to reach the lunar surface in terms of fuel consumption.The NASA team has allocated 45 tons to the entire landing system, which is almost the Orion mbad double.
The design team also plans to split the undercarriage into three 15-ton segments: the crew cabin with the climb motor, the phase of descent and the space tug The space tugger would do the heavy work heavy, pushing the undercarriage to the ground. to move from its Gateway port to the lowest possible lunar orbit, where the descent phase would then support the braking maneuvers.
As a result, the consumable descent phase, which would arrive with each new Orion crew (as well as the propellant for the climb engine), could have a minimum size, while the space tug could be used to several ferry trips. The two potentially reusable components of the undercarriage – the ascent phase and the space tug – could be refueled into lunar orbit since a 22-tonne tanker sent off the Earth.
Return to the moon, take two
Illustration of the Altair lander
NASA
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This reusable spacecraft is not the right The first lunar lander proposed since Apollo 11, the last crewed mission on the Moon, returned in 1972. In the early 2000s, NASA wrote the impressive Altair Landing Constellation Program, President George W. Bush's vision for return. on the Moon then on Mars. NASA abandoned Altair when the project encountered financial and political problems. The spacecraft was the main survivor of the now-canceled Constellation program, but without the undercarriage, the four-seat capsule could only fly over the moon.
In the meantime, various aerospace contractors in the United States, Europe, and Russia have tinkered with various designs of landing gear, usually at their own expense and without government approval. The latest example to date is Lockheed Martin's LG proposal revealed earlier this month.
What is different from this study, however, is its endorsement of NASA, and that its design is launched as part of a multinational effort. While it remains unclear who will pay the bill for humanity's return trip to the moon, several space agencies have expressed optimism about the financial support of their government.
Of course, these early plans could change over the years of planning and development. But the reusable spacecraft of the Lander Study Group is another compelling evidence that man is ready to return to the moon.
