It’s official: Trump administration turns NASA back toward the Moon

[Legend]

It's official: Trump administration turns NASA back toward the Moon | Ars Technica

[Legend]

I can't believe there's so little interest in this  

It's basically saying that NASA will land humans on the Moon as soon as possible. Within 10 years.


The space industry has been backtracking to the Moon for a couple years now so now it seems that those companies made a good call.


ULA specifically has the CisLunar 1000 concept which is a roadmap towards a massive lunar economy. Their ACES second stage will act like a space taxi taking cargo from LEO to its destination and taking fuel from the Moon to LEO. One thing about ACES that's really cool is that instead of having a battery, it has a gas generator running off escaping fuel. It can stay active in space for months to years if refueled. It also runs of hydrogen and oxygen which can easily be produced from water on the Moon. There are concepts to slightly modify ACES so that it could act as a lunar lander for crew as well.


Blue Origin has the long term goal of wanting millions of people working in space and on the Moon, but this concept art is almost everything we know about their short term lunar landing plans. It also runs off hydrogen and oxygen so it use fuel produced on the Moon, but this doesn't seem like a reusable design.


SpaceX does not care for the Moon and has not designed their hardware around it. The BFR runs off methane and oxygen. While oxygen can be made from water on the Moon, methane cannot (at least short term). Despite that limitation, the BFR is big enough that it can deliver payload and return without refueling. Using it to land on the Moon is just SpaceX trying to adapt to the changing industry goals.


I don't know of any other lunar lander concepts that are realistic within the next few years, so it seems highly likely that one or all of these will receive government funding in a COTS like program.

[the-pi-guy]

Well Bwest hasn't been here in a while and he's usually more interested.  

I am interested, but I don't really put enough time into it to learn anything about it.  

Can't wait to see the moon landing (faked again). /s

[Dr. Pezus]

Well Bwest hasn't been here in a while and he's usually more interested.  

I am interested, but I don't really put enough time into it to learn anything about it.  

Can't wait to see the moon landing (faked again). /s

Speaking of, where is he?

[the-pi-guy]

Speaking of, where is he?

He hasnt made a post in over a month, he was on a week ago though.  
No idea.  

[Legend]

Well Bwest hasn't been here in a while and he's usually more interested.  

I am interested, but I don't really put enough time into it to learn anything about it.  

Can't wait to see the moon landing (faked again). /s

Amusingly this time around faking it would actually be possible. We have the technology!

Bwest has needs to pop in one of these days. I've been missing him. Understandable that people only post every once in awhile though