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Why is NASA returning to the moon? Joe Pappalardo on the Artemi= s program, the future of U.S. spaceflight, and the beginnings of a new spac= e race.

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Destination

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Why is NASA re= turning to the moon? Joe Pappalardo on the Artemis program= , the future of U.S. spaceflight, and the beginnings of a new space race. =09=09=09=09=09=09

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NASA

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NASA h= as delayed the launch of its Artemis 1 moon mission twice ove= r the past two weeks—keeping its 322-foot Space Launch System rocket = and Orion capsule grounded in Cape Canaveral, Florida, where crowds of eage= r onlookers have been hoping to see the making of history. The first launch= attempt, on August 29, was called off after a faulty sensor indicated a pr= oblem with one of the rocket’s engines. The second, this past Saturda= y, was jettisoned due to a fuel leak. Now it’ll be September 19, at t= he earliest, before the U.S. space agency tries again with the $4.1 billion= flight of an unmanned rocket to orbit the moon. Artemis 1 is the first of = three planned missions for the Artemis program in the coming years; the sec= ond will bring astronauts into lunar orbit; and the third will, as NASA say= s, “put footprints on the moon dust for the first time since 1972.&rd= quo; What’s driving all this?

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=09=09=09=09=09=09Joe Pappalardo is a U.S.-based jour= nalist and the author of Spaceport Earth: The Reinvention of Space= flight. The context for the Artemis program, as Pappalardo sees i= t, is that NASA now understands the moon as a key resource in its broader a= mbitions over the next decades. These include establishing a space station = in the moon’s orbit, spurring the growth of a commercial space indust= ry that NASA understands as essential to its long-term success, and ultimat= ely extracting ice from lunar caters as a resource for space travel—a= nd laying the foundation for the human exploration of Mars. Meanwhile, the = Artemis program allows the U.S. to lead a coalition of countries around the= world in an ambitious collective effort. At a moment in history when China= and Russia are mobilizing on their own objectives in space, as they contin= ue to on some of their more troubling objectives here on Earth, Pappalardo = sees the competition between democracies and autocracies extending beyond o= ur world as it intensifies within it.
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——= —

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=09=09=09=09=09=09Graham Vyse: How unusual are the launch = delays we’ve seen for Artemis 1?

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=09=09=09=09=09=09Joe Pappalardo: These kinds of engineeri= ng-driven delays—certainly at this stage of a rocket program—ar= en’t uncommon. So on the one hand, I think of them as part of the pro= cess, which isn’t always going to be smooth and easy. On the other ha= nd, I think about all the money being spent—and how much slower this = process has been compared with commercial space programs—and I wonder= about the benefit of that. NASA is using legacy hardware from the era of t= he Space Shuttle, so the expectation was that they knew what they were doin= g, and there shouldn’t be too many surprises, but the testing went ba= dly from the start and now they look a little embarrassed.

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I’m begi= nning to feel a little worried about lots of delays leading to cost overrun= s and that SpaceX’s lander for the upcoming Artemis 3 mission to the = lunar surface might be ready before the Space Launch System and Orion are r= eady. This Artemis 1 launch is ultimately going to happen, but there’= s a risk that years of expensive delays could limit the aspirations of the = Artemis program as a whole.

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=09=09=09=09=09=09Vyse: As you see a lot of observers noti= ng, the program is already years behind schedule and billions of dollars ov= er budget. Why is that?

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Pappal= ardo: Each launch for the program costs over $4 billion. Cost over= runs are from delays caused by engineering problems—the need for extr= a tests, for instance. We’re talking about a big, complicated program= , with lots of subcontractors from just about every congressional district = in America. Creating jobs is a point of pride, but when you have so many di= fferent parts of a program created by so many different people, one thing g= oing wrong can mean delays for the whole effort.

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=09=09=09=09=09=09It may be unfair to compare SpaceX and NASA, but SpaceX i= s built to be fast-but-risky whereas NASA is built to be slow-but-reliable.= We’re now seeing that the fast-but-risky approach is actually leadin= g to not only faster but more reliable results. Artemis is this giant U.S. = government program that leaks money—as the Apollo program was—a= nd that seems antiquated, but lots of members of Congress could get behind = its traditional approach, which made use of languishing NASA facilities and= had a supply chain stretching into lots of different communities. There ar= e real benefits to NASA doing work across these communities, of course, but= this approach can get in the way of doing things quickly, being able to ch= ange direction when engineers learn something new, or being free to adopt n= ew technology and machinery. There’s less flexibility. And the Space = Launch System isn’t reusable, either, meaning it’s a costly roc= ket that can only be used once. It would be foolish to stop this program no= w, but it would be grossly irresponsible to replicate it in the future. =09=09=09=09=09=09

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NASA

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More from = Joe Pappalardo at The Signal:
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“Artemis 1 is a shakedown cruise—a performance test—fo= r the rocket and capsule system. It’ll test the navigation systems an= d the spacecraft’s engines to get into lunar orbit. Then the capsule = will fly unmanned around the moon in a very wide and long arc—even wi= der and longer than Apollo 13’s in 1970. It’ll loop around, com= e back to Earth, and land somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. This capsule&mdas= h;the Orion capsule, built by Boeing—is what the crew will ride in to= get to the moon on future missions.”

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=09=09=09=09=09=09“NASA talks about going back to the moon as a means of preparing to land on Mars—though if that’s= what they really care about, I wonder why they don’t focus on it mor= e directly, given that the moon and Mars are radically different. When you = speak to lower-level people at NASA who do a lot of serious thinking, you r= ealize the moon is going to end up being a kind of resource outpost for tri= ps into space. Ice trapped in its poles will be convertible into fuel for s= hips to travel greater distances. NASA ultimately wants to have a permanent= space station, the Lunar Gateway, orbiting the moon as a place where you c= an get supplies or use an excellent communications system. Think of it as b= eing like a hotel and telegraph office in the Wild West—and maybe, in= the future, a fueling station.”

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=09=09=09=09=09=09“There wouldn’t be an Artemis program= without the commercial industry. There are commercial missions wi= th robotic landers that will lay the groundwork for astronauts to return to= the moon, and there will be a SpaceX Starship taking those astronauts to t= he lunar surface on NASA’s behalf. That’s an enormous role. Fol= low-on missions will involve other companies like Blue Origin. It’d b= e a lot easier to imagine private companies landing on the moon without NAS= A than to imagine NASA landing on the moon without private companies.&rdquo= ;
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The Signal explores urgent quest= ions in current events around the world—to support it and for full ac= cess:

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