Lockheed Martin Unveils Plans for Huge Reusable Lander for Astronauts

This is not the lunar lander of your grandfather.

Today (October 3), aerospace giant Lockheed Martin has unveiled its one-step reusable spacecraft concept, capable of carrying four astronauts between the lunar orbit and the surface of the Moon.

In comparison, the consumable lunar landing gear used by NASA in the Apollo program was carrying two people and weighing 4.7 tonnes (4.3 tonnes) without propellant. The Lockheed craft would weigh 24 tonnes (22 tonnes) dry and tilt the scale to 68 tonnes (62 tonnes) when it would be full of gasoline. [Lunar Legacy: 45 Apollo Moon Mission Photos]

The Lockheed LG would use as an entry base the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway, a small space station that NASA plans to start building near the moon in 2022.

The lander would leave the bridge taking astronauts and up to 1.1 ton (1 ton) of freight to the lunar surface, according to a new Lockheed white paper. The craft (and its crew) could stay on the surface for two weeks, then return to the bridge without having to refuel. (The lander would be refueled between missions – possibly with a propellant derived from ice water extracted from the moon or asteroids.)

The LG design exploits many technologies from the Orion capsule, which Lockheed builds for NASA. Orion and the Space Launch System (SLS), which is also under development, will help astronauts explore far-flung destinations, such as the Moon and Mars, NASA officials said.

"We have done a lot of development on Orion, so it helps," said Tim Cichan, Space Exploration Architect at Lockheed Martin Space, Space.com. (Cichan introduced the concept of the lunar lander today at the International Astronautical Congress in Bremen, Germany.)

Orion already has a flight, an unprepared test mission in Earth orbit in December 2014. NASA plans to steal the capsule again in 2020, on an unmanned flight called Exploration Mission 1, which will also make debut for the SLS. (The 2014 Orion flight used a Delta Delta Heavy United Launch Alliance rocket.) On the EM-1, Orion will loop around the moon and spend about three weeks in space. The first Orion-SLS crewed flight, Exploration Mission 2, is currently scheduled for 2023.

The Lockheed proposed landing gear could be operational by the end of the 2020s, according to the timeline chosen by NASA to get its boots back on the moon, said Rob Chambers, director of the company's development strategy. human theft and commercial development of Lockheed Martin Space. The LG would also be launched at the top of the SLS, at least for the foreseeable future, he told Space.com.

The Lockheed concept vehicle is a bit bigger than the crewed lunar landing gear that NASA seems to be considering. In March, for example, the space agency asked the industry to submit ideas that would contribute to the development of a landing gear capable of transporting between 0.55 ton and 6.6 tons (0.5 to 6 metric tons) to the lunar surface.

Lockheed regards the lunar lander as a precursor to a Red Planet lander, a key component of the company's Mars Base Camp exploration architecture. This base camp is a space station in orbit on Mars that would serve as a hub for exploration and serve as a starting point for crewed surface (as would the Moon Bridge) and for trips to the two little moons, Phobos and Deimos.

Lockheed has long been planning to test the base camp Mars lender on the moon, said Chambers. But Red Planet's projects do not depend on NASA for vehicle selection for Gateway operations.

"A pioneering lander would be very beneficial but not absolutely necessary," said Cichan.

Mike Wall's book on the search for extraterrestrial life, "Over there" will be published on November 13th. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.