Author Topic: NASA evaluates EM-2 launch options for Deep Space Gateway PPE  (Read 11291 times)

Offline Chris Bergin

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Offline Markstark

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Great article and renderings.

Good visualing of the NRHO:

Looks bizarre in the Earth centered inertial frame.

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Offline JDTractorGuy

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Has there been any info on what would be use for the lunar landing portion?

Altair back from the dead?

Offline TaurusLittrow

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Has there been any info on what would be use for the lunar landing portion?

Altair back from the dead?

NASA's notional mission sequence sees the DSG in NRHO primarily as a staging area for the Deep Space Transport to make a 300-400-day "shakedown" cruise followed by a transit of the Mars system. Crewed spacecraft to the lunar surface are not in the picture. Likely partners on the DSG, like ESA, may have more lunar surfaced-focused ideas.

Offline whitelancer64

Has there been any info on what would be use for the lunar landing portion?

Altair back from the dead?

There are currently no plans for landing on the lunar surface. The current raison d'etre for the DSG is to field-test tech for going to Mars and being the assembly location for a future Mars transit spacecraft.
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Offline MATTBLAK

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I suspect any lander is going to be halfway between the Apollo LM and the size of Altair. And if NASA can't get the funding; perhaps an ESA/JAXA consortium could be asked to build it. But then; they have to get funding appropriations approved, too! The other option is to ask Commercial Space - including the big guys Boeing/LockMart/Northrop-Grumman - to compete for the contract. I'd love to see Elon's proposal, assuming he was even interested.
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Offline TaurusLittrow

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I suspect any lander is going to be halfway between the Apollo LM and the size of Altair. And if NASA can't get the funding; perhaps an ESA/JAXA consortium could be asked to build it. But then; they have to get funding appropriations approved, too! The other option is to ask Commercial Space - including the big guys Boeing/LockMart/Northrop-Grumman - to compete for the contract. I'd love to see Elon's proposal, assuming he was even interested.

ESA, in particular, seems more interested in lunar surface activity. At some point, there will be a "fork in the road" for DSG partners if NASA still champions Mars first and the Europeans head for the lunar surface.

Offline Todd Martin

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Why would NASA want to co-manifest Orion on the PPE deployment mission?  The PPE module could be much heavier if Orion wasn't tagging along.

Offline RonM

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Why would NASA want to co-manifest Orion on the PPE deployment mission?  The PPE module could be much heavier if Orion wasn't tagging along.

You got that backwards. On Orion missions after EM-1, there will be leftover payload capacity. It's almost a free flight for the DSG modules. It also gives Orion after EM-2 somewhere to go.

Offline rakaydos

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I suspect any lander is going to be halfway between the Apollo LM and the size of Altair. And if NASA can't get the funding; perhaps an ESA/JAXA consortium could be asked to build it. But then; they have to get funding appropriations approved, too! The other option is to ask Commercial Space - including the big guys Boeing/LockMart/Northrop-Grumman - to compete for the contract. I'd love to see Elon's proposal, assuming he was even interested.
I'm pretty sure Elon already mentioned his proposal- High elliptical rendezvous refueling.

Offline Khadgars

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Why would NASA want to co-manifest Orion on the PPE deployment mission?  The PPE module could be much heavier if Orion wasn't tagging along.

You got that backwards. On Orion missions after EM-1, there will be leftover payload capacity. It's almost a free flight for the DSG modules. It also gives Orion after EM-2 somewhere to go.

Yup.  With the current architecture, this is the best utilization of current and in-work assets.  Also allows private sector and other country agencies to participate in a straight forward capacity.
Evil triumphs when good men do nothing - Thomas Jefferson

Offline fregate

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While DRHO provides a bridge between Earth-Moon system  Lagrange points EML1 and EML2, does anybody know what are Delta-V and TOF for flights from DRHO to EML1 and from DRHO to EML2? 
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Offline envy887

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While DRHO provides a bridge between Earth-Moon system  Lagrange points EML1 and EML2, does anybody know what are Delta-V and TOF for flights from DRHO to EML1 and from DRHO to EML2?

On the order of a few days and a few hundred m/s. You can probably find more exact answers by poking around in some of the papers here:
https://www.google.com/search?&q=site%3Antrs.nasa.gov+near+rectilinear+halo+orbit

Offline hektor

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Some leaks about the NASA FY2019 budget mention

Quote
Achieving an early milestone in human space exploration by launching the Power Propulsion Element in 2022 using a commercial launch vehicle

Offline mike robel

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Some leaks about the NASA FY2019 budget mention

Quote
Achieving an early milestone in human space exploration by launching the Power Propulsion Element in 2022 using a commercial launch vehicle

While past performance is no guarantee of future results, does anyone really think NASA can build and launch this in 4 years?

Offline Zed_Noir

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Some leaks about the NASA FY2019 budget mention

Quote
Achieving an early milestone in human space exploration by launching the Power Propulsion Element in 2022 using a commercial launch vehicle

While past performance is no guarantee of future results, does anyone really think NASA can build and launch this in 4 years?

As long as Nasa don't do their usual micro-management insight. Which is unlikely.

Offline hektor

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Well I see that if confirmed as a transfer of an element from SLS launch to commercial launch. That is kind of interesting from that standpoint.

Offline woods170

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Some leaks about the NASA FY2019 budget mention

Quote
Achieving an early milestone in human space exploration by launching the Power Propulsion Element in 2022 using a commercial launch vehicle

While past performance is no guarantee of future results, does anyone really think NASA can build and launch this in 4 years?
No.

Offline oldAtlas_Eguy

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Some leaks about the NASA FY2019 budget mention

Quote
Achieving an early milestone in human space exploration by launching the Power Propulsion Element in 2022 using a commercial launch vehicle
I thought this PPE was to be co-manifested on EM-2.

Offline meberbs

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Some leaks about the NASA FY2019 budget mention

Quote
Achieving an early milestone in human space exploration by launching the Power Propulsion Element in 2022 using a commercial launch vehicle
I thought this PPE was to be co-manifested on EM-2.
As far as I know, that has been the official plan, but from when I first heard about DSG, I never thought that it was something that needed SLS to support it. It seemed like if designed right it could be done with just commercial vehicles. I don't expect SLS to last long enough to build up the DSG if it flies at all after EM-1, so it is good to hear that this is being considered.

I listened to part of a recent presentation from SNC about NextStep 2 (see here), and I was pleased to hear that they are designing all of their elements to fit in an EELV 5m fairing.

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