The New Space Race 

The New Space Race

By D. S. Mitchell

Back To The Moon

The U.S. touched down on the moon and did a walk about, planted a flag, collected a pile of rocks and came back home. That was way back in 1969. With that landing the U.S. effectively won the space race of that era against it’s saber rattling, cold war enemy, the Soviet Union.

The Vision

NASA’s  new moon program is called Artemis. Artemis 1 orbited the moon and returned with loads of information, but did not carry human beings. The vehicle landed safely in the Pacific Ocean after a 42 day mission. In the Artemis 2  phase NASA plans to send astronauts to the  moon and return them safely to earth. A colony will be built over a period time where astronauts will visit and stay for weeks at a time.

Two Primary Goals

The goal is to establish a continual human presence on the moon. In the NASA plan a space station orbits the moon and a base camp is established on the surface; all fueled by small nuclear reactors.  The goal is basically two fold. One is to mine the minerals on the moon and two is to test whether human beings can live in space for months, potentially years, safely. NASA’s ultimate goal is to use the moon as a staging site for its race to Mars.

NASA’s SLS Rocket

The SLS rocket has cost over $93 billion to develop. The SLS is the most powerful rocket ever built, taller than the Statue of Liberty, and capable of carrying 27 tons of cargo. The big drawback of the SLS is that they can only be used once, making them inefficient. By contrast the super-heavy launch vehicle Starship, being built by Elon Musk’s SpaceX for use as the lunar landing vehicle is re-useable.

 What Role Does SpaceX Fill

SpaceX beat out Blue Origins, owned by Jeff Bezos to provide the lunar lander for Artemis 3, in a contract worth $3 billion dollars. Starship will ferry astronauts from their Orion capsule orbiting the moon down to the surface. But so far the SpaceX rocket has not been tested. Needless to say if SpaceX can’t deliver on time the whole project will be set back accordingly

Moon Geography

The Apollo astronauts landed at the equator. The Artemis astronauts will land and explore the South Pole, which features steep mountains as well as deep crevices that hold water ice. The Chinese have announced their plan for an exploratory mission  to that same region. It looks like it might get crowded up there.

Lunar Diversity

In 2022 the Chinese and the Russians agreed to co-operate in building a joint lunar base.  China sent a rover to the moon surface in 2013. They plan over the next decade to send at least three more rovers to the  moon,  their goal is to eventually land astronauts in the early 2030’s. The Chinese and the Russians are our rivals and the tensions here on earth could easily be transported off planet. Bill Nelson, NASA administrator highlighted tensions by accusing the Chinese of stealing U.S. secrets, at the same time the Chinese are deploying spy balloons over our country. In addition to the government missions, both Blue Origins and SpaceX intend to fund private venture missions of their own, separate from NASA. Capitalism at it’s finest.

Artemis Accords

NASA is partnering with the UK, the EU, Canada, and Japan to build a lunar space station. The U.S. has taken the lead in establishing a legal framework for international lunar co-operation. The Accords were written by NASA and the U.S. State Department. Twenty-one countries have signed the pact, most importantly two have not, China and Russia, calling the pact  “colonialist” paving the way they say for the U.S. and her allies to “loot” the moon’s resources before anyone else can get there.