Flexible futures
That adaptability could be crucial for the new generation of space companies. NASA has moved the goalposts for its missions (or scrapped them entirely) on multiple occasions, leaving many projects floundering.
So the companies are prepared for various outcomes SNC, for example, is also building a prototype for the Lunar Gateway, as well as testing vegetable farming in space. Their VEGGIE program is housed on the ISS right now, giving the astronauts access to lettuce, tomatoes and more.
Boeing, the principal contractor for the ISS, has a full-scale model of their Gateway design, building from their experience with the space station.
And Blue Origin recently unveiled a full-fledged prototype for a lunar lander, called Blue Moon, at a press event in Washington, D.C. The lander could reach the Moon’s surface by 2024, says founder Jeff Bezos, and carry 8,000 pounds of payload. While NASA is familiar with the Blue Moon project, Suzuki says, he couldn’t confirm if the craft satisfied all NASA’s requirements yet.
Moon or bust
Ultimately, the biggest challenge Artemis poses for NASA and its commercial partners may simply be its short timescale to put humans back on the Moon. The tight timeline required a dramatic curtailing of the mission objectives: For example, the Lunar Gateway was initially proposed as a much larger, continuously inhabited station, similar to the ISS. Now, it’s likely to be used as a staging point, housing astronauts only during missions to the Moon.
The agency had initially planned to return to the Moon by 2028, but moved that date up by four years under pressure from the White House. NASA administrator Bridenstine also emphasized in his speech that the five-year timeframe was necessary in part to minimize the risk of funding being cut as a result of shifting political winds.
Perhaps as a result, the Artemis program feels more serious than previous projects meant to return humans to the Moon, said multiple sources. For one thing, the space industry has come a long way in the 15 years since NASA last proposed a lunar mission. That means the technological barriers are lower, and the options for sourcing equipment have multiplied.
“That’s one of the things that is completely different,” Mahoney says. “It’s not like we have to imagine something that is entirely and solely government-driven. We now have proof positive that it is possible to successfully meet a NASA desire, and support NASA missions, using commercial services.”
As just one example, commercial resupply missions to the ISS, by SpaceX and soon others, have opened the door to other partnerships. The possibilities are surprisingly close.
“We’ve got capabilities from commercial satellites and from [the] space station to build this gateway already there,” says Peter McGrath, Boeing’s director of global sales and marketing for human spaceflight. “If we leverage what we’ve got from those, the cost … isn’t that high.”
Instead, the greatest barrier to returning to the Moon may be the risk of funding being cut short once again.
“We can’t afford to keep starting and stopping our exploration programs,” McGrath says. “When we reset our programs every 10 years and throw away billions of dollars in investment and restart, it’s the reason we haven’t been back to the Moon in 50 years.”
But Suzuki says the agency is poised to rise to the occasion, galvanized by the tight deadline and the promise of once again setting foot on another celestial body.
“NASA’s ready to meet this challenge,” Suzuki said. “The 2024 challenge has focused the agency in a way that I’ve not seen in a long time.”