After years of development and countless tests of its rocket and crew capsule, NASA has nearly all the hardware it needs to send astronauts back to the moon.
For the first time since the Apollo program, NASA is looking for a new lander for its Artemis program.
“Seeing this gives me goosebumps,” Lisa Watson-Morgan, who leads the program, told CBS News’ Mark Strassmann as she walked past the Apollo lander on display at the US Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville. Alabama.
Built by Grumman, the Apollo Lunar Module was actually two spacecraft in one. The bottom half, the descent phase, brought the vehicle and its crew to a soft landing.
When it was time to go home, the ascent brought the crew back to orbit around the capsule.
We are absolutely building on Apollo. We say, ‘Okay, we see what they did, okay, we’re living in a different era. What makes sense to us today, what makes sense for NASA and what will help us become more of a sustained presence? ” said Watson-Morgan.
Unlike Apollo, NASA will not own the Artemis landing system. Instead, it will buy a landing service and choose from three completely different proposals. The space agency is expected to choose from three designs this month.
One such proposal is from Blue Origin, founded by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. It leads a team of aerospace companies that came up with an integrated design.
Brent Sherwood, vice president of advanced development programs at Blue Origin, told Strassmann, “The goal is to learn how to work there permanently.” That’s why Blue Origin’s propulsion system is based on water ice on the south pole of the moon could one day be converted into rocket fuel.
“Both hydrogen and oxygen are available on the Moon in the form of ice in the polar regions. And our vision is based on developing those lunar resources in the future to make these systems reusable instead of taking everything off Earth, “Sherwood said.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX proposes a lander based on his Starship design. The company is now testing it in Texas. Outside, an elevator-like system would lower astronauts to the surface.
There is another approach from Dynetics, based in Huntsville, Alabama. It has a horizontal, low-slung layout and the crew hatch is only eight feet above the ground.
“It’s one of the most striking aspects of our design … We’d like to say that when Neil Armstrong came off that lander and said, ‘A small step for man, a giant leap’, he really didn’t want it literally would be a giant leap, ”said Jonathan Pettus, director of Dynetics.
He gave CBS News a tour of his company’s mock-up.
“And what else would Neil and Buzz recognize about this?” Strassmann asked.
Well, first of all, they wouldn’t recognize that much space. It’s double what they had, ”said Pettus.
“If you win, what would that mean for the company,” Strassmann asked.
“Sure, it’s great from a business perspective, but ultimately that ability to play a role in this kind of treasure of the nation, the space program … you know, you can’t put a price on it,” replied Pettus.
The Apollo lander has successfully delivered a dozen Americans to the moon. Now NASA has to choose: Which design will land America’s next moonwalkers?
“How do you balance sticking to a formula that you know works, instead of being open to new ways of doing things?” Strassmann asked.
“Well, because if you’ve always done what you did, you always get what you have!” Watson-Morgan said. “I mean, you know, we have to try new things … I mean, it sure would be un-American not to try something new, right?”