【Text/Observer Network Ju Feng】
Nasa announced on November 9 that the manned lunar landing will be postponed by one year, and the implementation will be as early as 2025. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson gave reasons for the COVID-19 pandemic and the litigation dispute with Blue Origin. On the other hand, he said that China's space program is progressing rapidly, and in order to deal with "aggressive competitors", NASA needs to increase its budget significantly, and it is more appropriate to increase the budget by $5.7 billion over the next 6 years.
The Washington Post described Nelson as seeing the moon landing as a Cold War-like space race, only this time with China rather than the Soviet Union.
In 2017, then-U.S. President Donald Trump announced that he would send American astronauts to the moon again in 2024 after the Apollo program, a project called Artemis. Artemis was the goddess of the hunt, the goddess of the moon, the daughter of Zeus, and the sister of Apollo in ancient Greek mythology.
NASA Director Nelson told reporters on a conference call that the 2024 targets Trump had set were "technically unfeasible," CNN reported. ”
NASA CG image of the moon landing, from NASA
In addition to COVID-19, a "significant factor" that led to the delay, "we wasted nearly 7 months in litigation, which delayed the manned lunar landing until at least 2025," Nielsen said.
In April, NASA signed a $2.9 billion contract with SpaceX, Musk's space exploration technology company, to develop and produce two lunar spacecraft. BlueOrigin, another billionaire's rival, Jeff Bezos, protested after NASA had said it had contracts with several suppliers but ended up being "exclusively" by SpaceX. After that, Blue Origin took NASA to court. During this time, NASA suspended its cooperation with SpaceX.
SpaceX "Starship" renderings
NASA said it only chose to sign a contract with one supplier due to budget issues, while SpaceX offered a lower bid. On November 5, the U.S. Federal Court of Claims dismissed Blue Origin's appeal against NASA. Bezos said he accepted the ruling.
As soon as the Blue Origin lawsuit was dismissed, Nelson said, he spoke by phone with Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX's president and chief operating officer, the first time in months that lunar lander-related matters have been discussed. "We all stressed the importance of returning to the moon as soon as possible."
On the other hand, NASA Director Nelson "put pressure" on the country by telling about China's space achievements.
He said at a press conference, "We are facing a very aggressive and very successful Chinese space program. China is increasingly capable of getting Chinese astronauts to land (on the moon) sooner than initially expected. ”
Nelson uses the word "Taikonaut" when he speaks of "Chinese astronauts." "Taikonaut" is a spelling word that is a mixture of the pinyin of Chinese "space" and the English word astronaut. With the successful launch of the Shenzhou XII manned spacecraft, the term has entered the field of vision of more people and has been widely used around the world.
Nielsen mentioned China's recent space achievements, including the first module of the Chinese space station into orbit, the entry of Chinese astronauts into the space station, and the continuous dispatch of robots to explore the moon.
Nielsen insisted the U.S. needed a "fast moon landing." The Washington Post described the plan as a Cold War-like space race, only this time with China rather than the Soviet Union.
"We have every reason to believe that a competitor, a very aggressive competitor, will land on the moon with Chinese astronauts." And I think NASA wants the United States to be the first 'back to the moon' in nearly half a century, and I believe that's where the U.S. government stands." ”
At the end of last month, NASA announced that it would aim to carry out the Artemis I mission in February next year and conduct an unmanned test flight around the moon, about three months later than the original November this year. This is the first step in the "Return to the Moon" program. Last month, orion Spacecraft was stacked on top of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket head.
Nielsen introduced on the 9th that the manned lunar mission "Artemis II" will be launched in May 2024. This is more than a year behind the original schedule. II is similar to I, but the capsule will carry astronauts. This will also be the first U.S. manned lunar mission after the Apollo program.
The Astronauts' official lunar Artemis III mission will be carried out as early as 2025. Incidentally, according to Nielsen, there will be an unmanned mission to the moon before the "first female astronaut and astronaut of color in history" landed on the moon.
The Washington Post said that given the huge technical challenges, the development of new aircraft and the resistance of Congress on the budget, the 2025 moon landing may not be feasible. And to meet the set goals of the Artemis plan, Nielsen announced several changes on Tuesday, including the need to significantly increase the budget starting in 2023, "which will lay the foundation for more than 10 next moon landings."
Nielsen said the development cost of the updated Orion Spacecraft will increase from an initial $6.7 billion to $9.3 billion. The budget increase is due to changes in demand and delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
It's unclear how many budget changes Congress can accept, but it's appropriate for NASA to add an additional $5.7 billion over the next 6 years, Nielsen said.
It's been 52 years since Armstrong landed on the moon. From 1969 to 1972, a total of 12 people successfully performed lunar surface walks until the Apollo program was stopped.
On October 16, Yang Liwei revealed in an interview with a reporter from the general station that the preliminary plan demonstration of the manned moon landing is currently being carried out, and in the future, we will base ourselves on near-Earth space to explore more far-reaching space.
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