As of: February 9, 2024, 12:34 p.m
By: Tanja Banner
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The moon is currently experiencing a real onslaught.
However, the current missions are very different from “Apollo,” says an ESA expert in an interview.
Frankfurt – For several years now, the space industry has set its sights on the moon again.
But in recent years, more lunar landing missions have failed than succeeded.
Positive exceptions are India's successful moon landing in summer 2023 and Japan's successful landing in January 2024. But why is it that many moon landings fail and what does that mean for the planned moon landings with people on board?
Nico Dettmann is head of the lunar exploration group at the European Space Agency Esa and has followed the lunar landing attempts.
In an interview with
fr.de
from IPPEN.MEDIA, he explains what the differences are between the previous and current attempts, why the moon is suddenly in focus again and how European space travel is involved in the return to the moon.
Why the moon is currently the focus of space travel
Mr. Dettmann, the moon is currently the focus of numerous space missions. Why does everyone suddenly want to go to the moon?
That's right, the moon has come into focus a bit.
This is partly because we have been receiving data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter since around 2009, which has shown us that there are probably larger deposits of iced water, particularly in the polar regions where the moon has many craters.
Water is not only a possible basis for life, but is also suitable for producing drinking water or breathing air.
It could also be used, for example, to produce fuel or as a component for building materials.
That's one reason.
Nico Dettmann is head of the lunar exploration group at the European Space Agency Esa.
© Esa
The other reason is that with all the “Apollo” missions we landed near the moon’s equator.
It's relatively easy to land there because the surface is relatively flat.
So there are few craters, few bumps.
But we now know that the areas around the craters are geologically much more interesting.
The craters were created by meteorite impacts and it is precisely these materials that are at the bottom of the craters that, if samples could be taken, could provide further insights into the origin of the universe.
We now also have the technology to land more precisely, i.e. to approach these craters, which seems a bit contradictory given the failed missions.
For science, one of the things that matters is the water on the moon. And space travel definitely wants to show “we can do it,” right?
Yes, it's about that too.
The ultimate destination for human spaceflight is Mars.
And it is quite clear that the goal of flying directly to Mars would be too challenging as a first step.
The moon is an ideal test bed to get to know the environment better and to better understand what it means when you go on long-term missions in so-called deep space.
Why moon landings are still so difficult today
Recently, Astrobotic's private mission failed before the moon landing, and the Japanese landing was successful just days later. Numerous other attempts have failed in the past. Why are moon landings still so difficult, even more than 50 years after the “Apollo” missions?
So first of all, it has to be said that “Apollo” was a manned mission and the crew was able to help with the landing.
This is not the case with missions carried out autonomously today.
I think there were almost a million people working in the Apollo program at its peak.
This means that the financial resources that were available back then were also completely different.
It was just politically driven.
It was about who could be the first to ram their flag into the lunar surface and take the first step onto the moon.
The moon is currently the focus of space travel.
(Symbolic image) © IMAGO/JOE MARINO
The missions that are taking place today, some of which have unfortunately failed, are carried out under commercial aspects, which means they are significantly cheaper - also because more risk is consciously accepted.
These are unmanned missions, they are also cheaper because there is less testing and the design of these vehicles is also much simpler.
This means there are fewer redundancies, there is no automatic error detection and error correction.
And some of these missions fail because you try out new systems.
New systems, by which I mean so-called “hazard detection avoidance systems”.
These are systems that detect obstacles during the landing approach and then automatically select a landing trajectory that should allow a safe landing.
The systems are complex, so they are installed because they allow you to achieve much more precise landing accuracy, which is particularly necessary if you want to land in a polar region.
There are very different players who have flown to the moon in recent years. Do they learn from each other? Are they networked with each other or does everyone do it for themselves and everyone has to make the same mistakes themselves?
The missions that haven't worked out recently have always been due to other errors.
Even the development of these commercial landers still takes a relatively long time.
Of course, every developer tries to learn as much as possible about the errors in other missions in order to avoid similar errors in their own product.
But since these are competing countries, one cannot assume that all data will be shared transparently.
“Low-cost landers” fly to the moon – this increases competition
The “Nova-C” lander is scheduled to land on the moon in February. There's a real "run" on the moon right now...
This “Nova” lander is another lander from NASA’s CLPS program.
This is a program in which NASA purchases a landing service.
This means that the lander was not developed by NASA.
It's another low-cost lander, but that doesn't mean it won't work.
From this program, Astrobotic's mission was the first to take place.
There are at least five different lander providers under this CLPS program, and Nova is now the second lander.
I believe that this CLPS initiative makes a lot of sense, and not just because it promotes competition.
Not all lander providers will probably survive, but it is certainly a very effective means of identifying companies with good expertise and then allowing them to grow in the long term.
Moon missions in recent years |
|
|---|---|
Chang'e 3 (China/CNSA) |
Landing with Rover Yutu in December 2013 |
Chang'e 4 (China/CNSA) |
Landing with Rover Yutu 2 in January 2019 |
Beresheet (private Israeli mission/SpaceIL) |
Crash on the moon in April 2019 |
Chandrayaan-2 (India/ISRO) |
Orbiter reached lunar orbit in August 2019, lander crashed |
Chang'e 5 (China/CNSA) |
Landing on the moon in December 2020, returning 1.7 kg of lunar rock |
Artemis 1 (USA/NASA) |
Unmanned orbit of the moon in November 2022, first test of the US spacecraft Orion, which is intended to take astronauts to the moon |
Hakuto-R (private Japanese mission) |
April 2023 crash involving Rover Rashid from the United Arab Emirates |
Chandrayaan-3 (India/ISRO) |
Landing on the moon in August 2023 |
Luna-25 (Russia/Roskosmos) |
Crash in August 2023 |
Slim (Japan/Jaxa) |
Landing in January 2024 |
Peregrine One (private US mission/Astrobotic) |
Crashed to Earth in January 2024 |
What has happened in space travel since “Apollo”? A lot has happened, especially in the last few years...
So if you use space travel and “Apollo” in the same sentence, then we are talking about manned space travel.
We now have a much better understanding of the environment.
The security and reliability requirements have become much higher.
The “Apollo” missions were so-called one-shot missions.
That means you fly there and back as part of a mission.
The “Artemis” program has now been set up and part of this “Artemis” program is the so-called “Gateway”.
This is a kind of international space station in lunar orbit, a home base that will allow astronauts to do longer missions on the lunar surface, with a stopover in the “Gateway”.
This brings greater flexibility, but also a longer length of stay.
This results in significant differences compared to the “Apollo” missions.
The “Nova” lander is another low-cost lander, but that doesn’t mean it won’t work.
Nico Dettmann, Esa
When do you expect the next people to walk on the moon and what flag will they have with them? NASA has just pushed back its plans for the next moon landing. And China also has plans.
So of course it's a bit of speculation.
Based on the facts, NASA is currently planning for 2026 and with SpaceX's “Starship”, which still has to complete its first completely successful flight.
As far as I know, the Chinese are planning the first manned mission for 2030. I would say it will be a close race.
Esa is working on NASA's “Artemis” moon program
And what about Europe? What lunar ambitions does Esa have? The lunar missions in recent years all came from other countries.
At the last Council of Ministers Conference in 2022, the ESA member countries decided to develop the so-called “Argonaut” lunar lander.
This is an unmanned lander that is intended to bring between one and a half to two tons of payload to the lunar surface.
This would make Europe's key contributions to the development of a permanent infrastructure on the moon.
The first launch of the “Argonaut” is planned for 2031 on an “Ariane 6” rocket.
During the “Artemis I” mission, the NASA space capsule “Orion” flew unmanned around the moon.
Esa contributes the European service module.
(Archive image) © IMAGO/Nasa
Esa is also involved in NASA’s “Artemis” program. What exactly is planned on the European side?
A key European contribution is the delivery of all service modules, which are an essential part of the “Orion” space capsule.
This means that there is no manned NASA moon mission without the ESA service module.
And there are also three important contributions from Esa to the “Gateway”.
This is the I-Hab, the International Habitation Module.
You can imagine this in a similar way to the modules that are also available on the International Space Station (ISS).
Esa is also developing the Esprit module, which is a so-called refueling module.
The main task is to refuel the gateway propulsion module, but it also offers storage space and is the only module to have integrated windows that give the astronauts a view of space.
A third element, the HALO Lunar Communication System, will be on board when the first gateway module is launched.
This is a system that allows direct communication between the “gateway” and the moon.
The “Argonaut” is also planned as an element of the “Artemis” program and is intended to make a further European contribution as a logistics supplier.
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