Moon Mission

[ClearedHot]

I am a total space geek and have been reading up on the upcoming mission back to the moon.  There is some SERIOUS turmoil in the community over the decisions that have been made.

The orbital mechanics are VERY different and is many ways, more risky mainly because the ARTEMIS does not have enough thrust (Delta V), to conduct the mission the same way as Apollo using a low lunar orbit.  Instead, they will use a near-rectilinear halo orbit (NHRO), which means there will be long periods that if something happens on the surface, they will have to wait for the return vehicle to come back in range. 

Apollo Flight Plans

ARTEMIS Flight Plans

NRHO Flight path.

The profile requires we launch into earth orbit, then launch a series of "tankers" to fuel the mission.  Interestingly we have NEVER done cryogenic refueling in space.  More concerning, we are two years from launch and they still don't know how many tankers they have to launch for this mission.  The latest NASA estimate is 15!!!

Thankfully they are not using the Boeing Starliner capsule, but Boeing is very involved with other parts of the project.

Cool to see us reaching out again but sucks that we can't do what we did 55 years ago!

[Lord Ratner]

Smarter Every Day on YouTube did a presentation (I believe to NASA) on this. It's a complete lack of seriousness within the space bureaucracy. There's no way this goes to plan, and a very good chance the decisions made will end up getting the program cancelled when budget woes rear their ugly head. 

 

Better hope Elon can carry the entire mission on his shoulders.

[ClearedHot]

19 hours ago, Lord Ratner said:

Smarter Every Day on YouTube did a presentation (I believe to NASA) on this. It's a complete lack of seriousness within the space bureaucracy. There's no way this goes to plan, and a very good chance the decisions made will end up getting the program cancelled when budget woes rear their ugly head. 

 

Better hope Elon can carry the entire mission on his shoulders.

Meanwhile Elon caught a booster in flight with a tower today on the FIRST try.  That was AMAZING!

 

[guineapigfury]

[busdriver]

22 hours ago, Lord Ratner said:

Smarter Every Day on YouTube did a presentation (I believe to NASA) on this.

This presentation is really good.  Anyone who's spent enough time in the government/defense industry will see a lot of familiar stuff.

[Lord Ratner]

On 10/13/2024 at 10:58 AM, busdriver said:

This presentation is really good.  Anyone who's spent enough time in the government/defense industry will see a lot of familiar stuff.

Here's the video of anyone wants to watch. Also, if you have kids that watch YouTube, this is a channel to add to their whitelist.

 

 

[Lawman]

Meanwhile Elon caught a booster in flight with a tower today on the FIRST try.  That was AMAZING!
 

Yeah while I totally agree with the sentiment of skepticism at the lunar mission flight plan for Artemis….

This does make the cycling rate for launches to meet the refuel question way more within reach if they can replicate this success.

Truly amazing… imagine having all the modules on ground pre assembled and building something like the ISS in weeks/months instead of years/decades. Truly insane leap in what could be.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mp5g]

Such an on the nose reminder of what people are capable of when the government bureaucracy gets taken out of the process. I don’t know what it was like in the ‘60s to watch the leaps and bounds that NASA made towards manned space flight on the way to the Lunar landings, but I feel immense pride in watching SpaceX demonstrate good old American ingenuity. I love the “chip on the shoulder” attitude that we’re gonna do something completely unheard of in the history of the world. And why, because F*** you, we can.