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COLORADO SPRINGS – Lockheed Martin said he has developed an approach aimed at achieving the goal of placing humans on the South Pole of the Moon by 2024, but warns that the construction of essential equipment should soon begin for respect this deadline.
At a conference at the 35th Space Symposium held here on April 10, company officials said they could widely use existing equipment to develop components. such as a reduced version of the Moon Bridge and a two-storey lunar lander according to an accelerated schedule.
According to Lockheed, the basic elements of the plan, although many details remain unclear, demonstrate that the ability to meet the 2024 deadline set on March 26 by Vice President Mike Pence in a speech by the National Council of the space is at least technically feasible, so difficult.
"This is not the only way to do that," said Rob Chambers, Director of Manned Spaceflight and Business Development at Lockheed Martin. He called this approach as the company described a "proof of existence" according to which the overall goal is achievable. "The goal here is to build an architecture that moves from the needle of" is it possible "to" well, how can we do it best? "
Lockheed's plan would depart from NASA's former approach after Exploration Mission (EM) 1, an unarmed test of the Orion spacecraft launched by the space launch system in 2020. The company proposes to launch a 2022 "Phase 1" gateway consisting solely of Propulsion Element (PPE) and a small housing module with mooring ports. NASA plans to award prizes for PPE in May, while the housing module could be adapted from ongoing studies that are part of NASA's Next Space Technologies program, or NextSTEP.
This would be followed by EM-2, the first Orion crewed flight. While NASA's current architecture predicts that this mission will follow a "free return" trajectory around the moon, in this plane Orion would fly and dock with the bridge to check its systems.
This would require modifying the Orion spacecraft for this mission to incorporate a docking system. "It seems credible and reasonable that we can add the tie-down to EM-2," said Chambers. "This would allow us to test the operations of the bridge."
Lockheed Martin's proposal calls for the development of a lunar lander in two stages with stages of ascent and descent. The descent phase would be developed from the concepts that NASA had solicited earlier this year as part of another part of the NextSTEP program. The ascent phase uses Orion components, such as the pressure vessel, and a "print-in" version of the propulsion system for the Orion service module.
The two landing stages would be launched separately on commercial launchers leading to the bridge by the beginning of 2024, where they would be mated. Tim Cichan, space exploration architect at Lockheed Martin, said another approach would be to launch them together on a single SLS.
In 2024, NASA would launch EM-3, a plane carrying four astronauts to the bridge. Some of them would be boarding the LG – Cichan said the company was still studying how many people the LG could handle – and was going to the lunar surface. These astronauts would likely spend several days near the lunar south pole before embarking on the ascent module to the bridge and then boarding Orion for the return trip.
While Lockheed Martin was discussing this plan just 15 days after Pence's speech, the work on the architecture presented began several months ago. "We looked at what could be as fast as possible," said Cichan, who felt that this could be done by 2024. However, he cautioned, "It will be a challenge."
To reach the 2024 deadline, work on LG equipment is expected to begin next year, Chambers said. "We need to bend the metal next year, which means that the tooling must already be manufactured in-house, and I hope that someone will have ordered a bunch of aluminum ", did he declare.
He compared his development schedule to the Orion spacecraft for EM-3, which NASA's schedule plans to be ready to launch in August 2023. Work on the crew module will begin this fall to meet that date, a- he declared. The ascent phase of the Orion-derived landing gear is expected to begin production by early 2020 to be launched early in 2024, giving it time to be ready for a mission on the ground. lunar surface before the end of 2024.
"By the end of this year, materials must begin to arrive and people under contract start building to print what exists today and that we can use safely," he said. declared.
The company declined to estimate the cost of this accelerated approach, in part because it depends on many factors. However, the Chambers indicated that funding would be higher than previous budget estimates.
"We all agree that it is not free," he said. "The current registration program can not be turned into a crew landing in 2024 without additional resources for human exploration activity."
NASA has also refused to estimate the cost of an accelerated program, be it the Lockheed concept or an alternative architecture. Industry sources at the symposium estimated that NASA would need an additional $ 3 billion to $ 5 billion a year to land by 2024, but NASA is not offering any figures at this time as it proposes an amendment to its budget proposal for the 2020 financial year.
"We need to be ready by next week to have a consensual administrative position on this," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine told reporters at the space symposium. This work will involve coordination with the Office of Management and Budget and national office staff. Council of space before presenting a proposal to Congress. "Until we get to this point, I do not want to put numbers on the table."
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