Total Members Voted: 30
Voting closed: 06/01/2023 07:41 pm
Utterly momentous, in all kinds of ways. Three companies/consortiums racing at breakneck speed to get people back to the moon in 4 years!What a time to be alive.And Starship part of Artemis? That'll worry a lot of vested interests I bet.
Quote from: steveleach on 04/30/2020 05:41 pmUtterly momentous, in all kinds of ways. Three companies/consortiums racing at breakneck speed to get people back to the moon in 4 years!What a time to be alive.And Starship part of Artemis? That'll worry a lot of vested interests I bet.At some point someone will ask "What do we need Orion for if this huge ship can do it?"
I bet those aren't spotlights
Also, losing the "wings" and tiles is probably the biggest weight loss program you could put the Starship on.https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1255907213568208896
The awards, which cover a period of 10 months, were given to the following teams:$579 million to the Blue Origin-led "National Team." Blue Origin will serve as the prime contractor, building the Blue Moon lunar lander as the "descent element" of the system, along with program management, systems engineering, and safety and mission assurance. Lockheed Martin will develop a reusable "ascent element" and lead crewed flight operations. Northrop Grumman will build the "transfer element," and Draper will lead descent guidance and provide flight avionics. It will launch on a New Glenn rocket.$253 million to a Dynetics-led team. The company's proposal for a lunar lander is non-traditional and includes Sierra Nevada Corporation as a major partner. The ALPACA lander has a pair of drop tanks that are launched separately, which allow the main lander to be reused. These tanks are depleted and then jettisoned during descent. ALPACA could be launched on United Launch Alliance's Vulcan rocket.$135 million to SpaceX. The company bid its Super Heavy rocket and Starship to carry humans to the Moon. The benefit of Starship is that if the vehicle is successful, it would offer NASA a low-cost, reusable solution for its needs.
Quote from: ioncloud9 on 04/30/2020 05:44 pmQuote from: steveleach on 04/30/2020 05:41 pmUtterly momentous, in all kinds of ways. Three companies/consortiums racing at breakneck speed to get people back to the moon in 4 years!What a time to be alive.And Starship part of Artemis? That'll worry a lot of vested interests I bet.At some point someone will ask "What do we need Orion for if this huge ship can do it?"This vehicle doesn't have any apparent earth return capability (either to earth orbit or earth surface). The earth return capability required probably too many launches and was highly sensitive to any mass growth (deleting the heat shield, wings, fins, earth return propellant, second landing propellant helps with that last part).
Breakdown of the award:https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/04/nasa-awards-lunar-lander-contracts-to-blue-origin-dynetics-and-starship/QuoteThe awards, which cover a period of 10 months, were given to the following teams:$579 million to the Blue Origin-led "National Team." Blue Origin will serve as the prime contractor, building the Blue Moon lunar lander as the "descent element" of the system, along with program management, systems engineering, and safety and mission assurance. Lockheed Martin will develop a reusable "ascent element" and lead crewed flight operations. Northrop Grumman will build the "transfer element," and Draper will lead descent guidance and provide flight avionics. It will launch on a New Glenn rocket.$253 million to a Dynetics-led team. The company's proposal for a lunar lander is non-traditional and includes Sierra Nevada Corporation as a major partner. The ALPACA lander has a pair of drop tanks that are launched separately, which allow the main lander to be reused. These tanks are depleted and then jettisoned during descent. ALPACA could be launched on United Launch Alliance's Vulcan rocket.$135 million to SpaceX. The company bid its Super Heavy rocket and Starship to carry humans to the Moon. The benefit of Starship is that if the vehicle is successful, it would offer NASA a low-cost, reusable solution for its needs.