SpaceX earns NASA funds to study a lunar lander launched by Falcon Heavy

NASA has announced a series of awards as part of its ambitions back on the Moon 2024, providing up to $ 45.5 million to 11 companies to study lunar landers, spaceships and refueling technologies in the space.

Among those selected for the studies are SpaceX, Blue Origin, Masten Space and the Sierra Nevada Corporation, alongside usual suspects such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin. The chances for NASA to reach a crewed return to the Moon's surface by 2024 are certainly minimal. However, given the space agency's relatively short time frame in the three months between the study and study grant proposals, these chances of success will at least continue to avoid the field of study. impossibility for the moment. In fact, SpaceX thinks that its lunar lander could be ready for a lunar start in 2023.

Make the OldSpace Limbo!

Nearly 90 days (three months) exactly after the publication of its request for proposals for the lunar lander, the eleven US companies selected for rewards can now begin to mature their designs, their concepts of operations and even build prototypes in a few selected cases. At least based on the volume of awards and prototypes funded, the bulk of the $ 45.5 million available for these studies seems unsurprisingly attributed to Boeing and Lockheed. The heavyweight duo of the military-industrial complex has maintained for decades a hold on NASA's manned space flight purchases.

Over the last 13 years, the two companies, combined, have carefully extracted no less than $ 35 billion from NASA, which has so far produced the unique launch of a prototype semi-finished spacecraft (Orion) on a rocket irrelevant to the context (Delta IV). Heavy) in 2014. The SLS rocket and the Orion probe remain almost perpetually late and have little chance of completing their unarmed launch. beginning until 2021, if not later.

SpaceX enters the lunar arena

"SpaceX was founded with the goal of helping humanity become an invading civilization. We are excited to extend our longstanding partnership with NASA to help get humans back to the moon and ultimately go beyond. "

– SpaceX President and Director of Operations, Gwynne Shotwell

SpaceX was one of 11 companies to receive funding from NASA for a design study relating to the lunar lander. Obviously, the company was analyzing this case of potential use for some time. What they are proposing is much more complex than what the NASA press release described as "a single-issue study of descent". But first and foremost, these NASA-funded studies – especially those relegated to design, without prototypes – are really just paper-based concepts. NASA funding will help to motivate companies to at least analyze and clarify their actual capabilities in relation to the task and timeframes, but there is no guarantee that more than one or two of the 11 studies will lead to serious contracts. of material.

Regardless of the many qualifications, the descent module proposed by SpaceX (eg Moon Lander) is undeniably impressive. If SpaceX were to win a development contract, the LG would be based on proven Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon subsystems, to the extent possible, resulting in a vehicle that would have a significant flying heritage even before its first flight. launch. This first attempt to land on the Moon could take place in 2023 and use the performance of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy, currently the most powerful rocket in operation.

No record has been released at this stage, but it is reasonable to assume that a SpaceX Moon undercarriage would be somewhat comparable to the just announced Blue Moon landing gear, capable of delivering approximately 6.5 t (14,300 lb) on the lunar surface. Rather than hydrogen and oxygen, SpaceX would use either Crew Dragon's NTO / MMH propulsion, or the base of the landing gear on the extremely mature upper stage of kerosene / liquid oxygen and the Merlin Vacuum engine (MVac ) of the Falcon 9.

Impressively, the SpaceX LG would aim for a 6.5 t payload capacity for the Blue Moon, almost twice as high, reaching up to 12 t (26,500 lb) on the Moon's surface. This payload could make it possible to create an unprecedented vehicle for the capsule / crew climb or to allow the delivery of robotic payloads or truly gigantic goods. In addition, SpaceX believes that a descent stage with the aforementioned capabilities could potentially serve as an excellent stage of orbital transfer, refueling tug, etc. The LG would also serve as a complete test bed for all of the advanced technologies that SpaceX needs to achieve its sustainable, reliable and affordable solar system colonization goals.

Time will tell if NASA really wants to upset the status quo and get to the moon quickly and affordably, or if it will rely on well-established habits to minimize results and maximize costs. The White House recently proposed to add an additional $ 1.6 billion to NASA's budget for fiscal year 2020, inexplicably choosing to withdraw these funds from the federal Pell Grant system, which helps more than five million disadvantaged Americans to afford a higher education. Regardless of the sheer political inadequacy implied by the proposed increase in funding, even $ 1.6 billion a year (the World Heritage proposal is only valid for one year) would be paltry in the face of the spectacular inefficiency of the usual entrepreneurs. Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

The telling sign of NASA's lunar ambitions will come when the agency begins to award real development and material production contracts to one or more of the proposals to be studied. Stay tuned!

Check Teslarati newsletters for quick updates, on-the-ground perspectives and a unique insight into SpaceX rocket launch and recovery processes