NASA concludes agreements for returning to the moon with three companies – InTallaght

NASA has announced that it has concluded contracts with three commercial teams, each of which will develop a human landing system as part of the Artemis program of the space agency.

The groups in question are SpaceX, Dynetics and a team led by Blue Origin, which will share a total of $ 967 million over 10 months of development work. The options are, at this early stage, quite varied, as commercial teams are adopting very different approaches towards their landers.

SpaceX, for example, will continue to develop its deep-space transportation system called Starship, which Elon Musks company plans to make economically feasible for the colonization of Mars and other exploration activities. The 50-meter spaceship will be launched from Earth on top of a giant rocket called Super Heavy. Both of these elements will be reusable. The spaceship will also be able to carry up to 100 people at a time.

The Dynetics crew module, however, is designed to accommodate two astronauts travelling to and from the lunar orbit, including stays on the lunar surface for about a week, company representatives say.

The third team will be led by Jeff Bezos Blue Origin, with the participation of Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Draper. This group will develop a three-phase architecture, which has elements of descent, ascent and transfer. The descent phase will be based on the Blue Moon lander, the ascent phase will take advantage of Lockheeds experience in developing the Orion crew capsule, while Northrop Grumman will handle the transfer.

In short, the plans for the return to the Moon seem to take shape gradually.

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NASA concludes agreements for returning to the moon with three companies - InTallaght