NASA held another press conference this Tuesday (30) to provide updates on plans to develop a lunar base, and the main news is that there is no big news. Specifically, Jared Isaacman, NASA administrator, and Carlos García-Galán, lunar base program manager, announced the hiring of four more private robotic missions to the surface of the Moon. Interestingly, the two also presented the idea of sending an engineering model of a Mars rover to explore the lunar south pole, but highlighted that this is not yet a decision made.
The lack of big news isn’t unexpected, considering the current plan is to make monthly announcements like this in an effort to showcase service and progress toward an extremely challenging goal, which is likely to unfold very slowly over the next few years.
The new look for the ads is that of the base, but it is basically a continuation of the carriage program established by the agency before directing the program towards the construction of a facility capable of keeping astronauts for long periods on the lunar soil. The four new contracted missions should take place at the end of 2028 and will cost around US$150 million each.
Two of them will be from the company Astrobotic, for US$297.9 million, and will use the company’s smallest landing module, called Peregrine. Astrobotic has already launched one of these modules in 2024, but a failure in space prevented a landing attempt. The company is also currently working on its larger landing module, Griffin, which is already contracted by NASA and is part of one of the robotic missions that the agency wants to see go to the Moon before the end of the year, but not necessarily.
The other two newly hired will be one from Firefly, for US$144.2 million, trying to repeat the success it had with its Blue Ghost module last year, and another from Intuitive Machines, for US$148.3 million. The company will fly a Nova-C module for the third time at the end of this year, again if there is no delay, and will now have a fourth mission already contracted, after two semi-successful landings. The landers survived the descent and operated on the ground, but toppled upon reaching the surface.
A MARTIAN ROVER ON THE MOON
It sounds like the name of a film from the Afternoon Session, but it is, in fact, one of the most interesting things presented at the press conference. Isaacman announced that NASA is studying the possibility of sending an engineering model of the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers to explore the Moon.
This test rover is a replica of those that went to Mars and is kept here on Earth, at JPL, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, to carry out tests that help maintain missions on the red planet. In short, it is a vehicle designed to operate on Mars that never left Earth, being used as a reference to help in the operation of its brothers that flew.
It would need few adaptations to be used on the Moon and would offer a valuable resource for lunar polar exploration, since it has, like its already launched twins, a plutonium battery that provides electricity and heat without relying on solar panels. This would give it the potential to explore, for example, the bottom of lunar craters where sunlight is unavailable, one of the most coveted targets on the Moon’s surface for its potential to harbor water ice.
The new mission would be called Promise, an acronym in English for Polar Rover for In-Situ Observation, Mapping and Exploration, but Isaacman highlighted that this is a proposal still under study. If this happens, one of the lunar trailer suppliers will be hired to take it to the surface of the Moon intact.
Deadlines
During the press conference, Isaacman and García-Galán strayed from specific timelines. The administrator highlighted that they are working on assembling the rocket for the Artemis 3 manned mission and expect to carry out a wet test on platform 39B later this year, aiming for a launch next year. The lunar program manager specified that they hope to see one of the three robotic missions originally scheduled for this year take place by December, but delays cannot be ruled out.
The most critical situation is that of Blue Origin, with its Blue Moon Mark 1 module. The lander itself is almost ready for flight, but the company had a serious setback with the explosion of a New Glenn rocket on the platform during a test, which caused serious damage to the ground systems. The company still expects to return to flights by the end of the year, but NASA itself admits that this could slip to 2027, and there would be a tolerance until more or less the middle of next year for the launch.
Far beyond that, according to Isaacman, the situation would complicate plans for the Artemis 3 manned mission, which also depends on deliveries from Blue Origin. The agency is studying the possibility of demanding the launch of the Blue Moon Mark 1 on a launcher other than the New Glenn, but, at the moment, the administrator highlights that the priority is to help Blue Origin overcome the difficulties. A flight with New Glenn continues to be described as “plan A”.
Source: www.noticiasaominuto.com.br
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