Photo: NASA
Although so far, in the six years or so since the Artemis Moon exploration program was announced, there has been only one actual mission (and that, with no humans on board), plans concerning the trips to come are accelerating. And the latest development concerns the landers that will actually put human boots on the Moon once again.
As you already know, the first mission to land astronauts on the Moon is Artemis III. Tentatively scheduled to depart in 2025, it will have a crew of four people on board.
They will head to the Moon in the Orion spaceship, which will beat Earth's gravity with the help of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. That's not unlike what happend during the previous missions of Apollo, but one of the things that sets Artemis apart is it will use a lander made by a private space company.
As you might also know, that lander is called Starship HLS and it will be made by SpaceX. Elon Musk's company was declared a winner after a somewhat bitter fight with Blue Origin and its Blue Moon. But the Artemis program extends far beyond this third mission/first trip to the Moon, and of course NASA will need a lot more landers. And not all of them will be of SpaceX design.
Back in September of last year, the American space agency announced the final call for proposals for the lander meant for missions post-Artemis III and IV. It was, if you will, a democratic hand given to the losers of the initial contract award.
At the end of this week, on Friday, May 19, NASA will announce "the company selected to develop a sustainable human landing system for the Artemis V Moon mission." We have no indication as to who that may be, but luckily enough Friday is coming shortly.
As per the request for proposal, to be considered a lander had to fulfill several criteria, the same as in the case of the Starship. And speaking of which, there's one very interesting thing about this one that you should know.
Unlike the Lunar Module of the Apollo program, which made the trip attached to the Apollo spacecraft with all other components needed for the mission, Starship will not depart at the same time with Orion. Instead, it will already be parked in lunar orbit, waiting for the spaceship and its crew to arrive.
It'll go down a bit like this: before the actual Artemis III launch, SpaceX will send up to Earth orbit a storage depot comprising fuel tanks. Then the lander itself will leave our planet, meet up with the tanks and refuel, and then head on to lunar orbit.
That's probably how subsequent Artemis missions will go as well, at least until the Gateway space station is ready. What remains to be seen is whether SpaceX or some other company will be in charge of missions V and beyond.
They will head to the Moon in the Orion spaceship, which will beat Earth's gravity with the help of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. That's not unlike what happend during the previous missions of Apollo, but one of the things that sets Artemis apart is it will use a lander made by a private space company.
As you might also know, that lander is called Starship HLS and it will be made by SpaceX. Elon Musk's company was declared a winner after a somewhat bitter fight with Blue Origin and its Blue Moon. But the Artemis program extends far beyond this third mission/first trip to the Moon, and of course NASA will need a lot more landers. And not all of them will be of SpaceX design.
Back in September of last year, the American space agency announced the final call for proposals for the lander meant for missions post-Artemis III and IV. It was, if you will, a democratic hand given to the losers of the initial contract award.
At the end of this week, on Friday, May 19, NASA will announce "the company selected to develop a sustainable human landing system for the Artemis V Moon mission." We have no indication as to who that may be, but luckily enough Friday is coming shortly.
As per the request for proposal, to be considered a lander had to fulfill several criteria, the same as in the case of the Starship. And speaking of which, there's one very interesting thing about this one that you should know.
Unlike the Lunar Module of the Apollo program, which made the trip attached to the Apollo spacecraft with all other components needed for the mission, Starship will not depart at the same time with Orion. Instead, it will already be parked in lunar orbit, waiting for the spaceship and its crew to arrive.
It'll go down a bit like this: before the actual Artemis III launch, SpaceX will send up to Earth orbit a storage depot comprising fuel tanks. Then the lander itself will leave our planet, meet up with the tanks and refuel, and then head on to lunar orbit.
That's probably how subsequent Artemis missions will go as well, at least until the Gateway space station is ready. What remains to be seen is whether SpaceX or some other company will be in charge of missions V and beyond.
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