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COLORADO SPRINGS – At a time when NASA is developing plans to accelerate man's return to the surface of the moon, international partners are wondering what role they will play, if any, in this effort.
NASA has not yet defined its approach to reach the stated goal in a speech made on March 26 by Vice President Mike Pence, according to which a man would have landed on the South Pole of the Moon. 39, here five years. The agency is working internally on at least one high-level approach to this and plans to start sharing details with the White House, including the Office of Management and Budget, this week to finalize a budget request. revised, which is expected to cost several billion dollars more than for fiscal year 2020.
Jim Bridenstine, NASA Administrator, however, said in his comments at the 35th Space Symposium that the agency would pursue a two-phase approach that would initially prioritize speed. This approach should use the space launch system and Orion, lunar landers and a version of a lunar gateway.
This lunar gateway, however, will likely be a simplified version of the previous concepts published just a month ago, which featured a suite of modules on housing, use and other modules provided by NASA and other current modules of the International Space Station. Some concepts in the study require only the power and propulsion element that NASA is in the process of procuring, as well as a docking node of some kind that could also serve as a housing module.
Publicly, Gateway's potential partners have not said much about how NASA's fast-track approach would affect their ability or willingness to participate. At an expert meeting held on April 10 on exploration, representatives of NASA, the Canadian Space Agency, the European Space Agency and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency largely avoided directly discussing what NASA's new plans would involve for international contributions to the bridge or other elements of exploration architecture.
"We are now taking the plans we have put in place and see how we can accelerate them," said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's Assistant Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations. "The good thing is that we are going to show and prove that the architecture we have put in place, the plans we have put in place are adaptable and we can continue to move forward."
David Parker, director of human exploration and robotics at ESA, pointed out that the gateway was meant to be "flexible and sustainable" despite all the changes. "He is flexible in the way he evolves and grows over time."
In private, however, international partners have expressed concerns about how accelerated plans could affect their timing or their ability to contribute to the overall exploration effort by delaying or even eliminating contributions such as the Gateway modules. This is a problem especially among ESA Member States, the agency seeking to obtain approval for its role in the exploration program at a particular time. ministerial meeting in November in Spain.
It also raises questions in Canada, where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government has announced plans to invest more than C $ 2 billion in the development of a robotic arm for the less expensive entry gate. a month before Pence announces the new moon target. Canada was the first country, with the exception of the United States, to formally join the Gateway program.
Bridenstine said he was aware of these concerns. "This has been a concern for our international partners, and they have expressed me throughout this conference," he said at an information meeting with reporters gathered here. April 9th.
He told international partners that the two-phase approach, which will move to a more sustainable long-term effort after the 2024 landing, will always provide opportunities for international partners. He added that it could also happen that partners such as ESA, which produces the Orion service module, are asked to do more in the short term. "We do not abandon them. In fact, we could ask them more, "he explained.
Bridenstine said he was aware that space partner agencies had to convince their governments to participate in the program, a challenge potentially made more difficult by NASA's plans change. "They need to get political endorsement from their legislatures," he said. "What I'm sure to do is communicate how important these international partnerships are and that the new agenda will not change that."
When asked if Europe would have "full clarity" on the new plans by the autumn, Bridenstine said that would be the case. "I told them that I would be happy to take a trip to Europe to give their political leaders the necessary assurance that our goals have not changed," he said, citing the wording of the Space Policy Directive 1 calling for a sustainable return to the moon with international partners. "I am happy to go to Europe and meet with political leaders to give them confidence that this is still on the agenda."
"The 2024 humans on the surface of the moon [goal] does not abandon our international partnerships, "he continued. "We need and want international partnerships."
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