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No return of the Americans to the Moon before 2026 "at the earliest"

2021-11-16T09:03:28.523Z


The American Artemis program to return to the Moon encounters "technical difficulties and delays increased by the Covid-1 pandemic


The return of humans to the moon will have to wait.

Already postponed last week by NASA from 2024 to 2025, a new public audit report estimates that the next American to walk on Earth's satellite will actually take place "at the earliest" in 2026.

The American Artemis program, according to this report, is encountering "technical difficulties and delays increased by the Covid-19 pandemic and weather events.

"

In particular: the development time required to complete two essential elements.

First, the new space suits will not be ready “before May 2025 at the earliest”, in particular because of “technical challenges and lack of funding”.

Then, the development of the manned landing system (HLS), which has been entrusted to the company SpaceX, will also suffer "probably" delays.

This lander, named Starship, must be placed in orbit around the Moon, and the capsule launched by NASA with the astronauts on board moor there so that they climb there, and that it brings them on the lunar ground.

First mission planned without astronauts

In its report, the Inspector General's office praised the “fast pace” of SpaceX production, thanks to a system largely managed “in-house”.

During visits to headquarters in California and factories in Texas in August, 20 Starship prototypes and 100 raptor engines have already been built.

Except that Space X faces a real challenge.

Until now the time between the award of a contract and the first flight was eight and a half years, today SpaceX is supposed to achieve this feat in half the time.

Considering these factors, "we estimate that NASA will exceed its current schedule for landing humans on the moon by 2024 by several years. The latter will likely slide to 2026," the report said.

This mission, which will be the equivalent of Apollo 11, is called Artemis 3. It will be preceded by Artemis 2, which will take astronauts to the Moon, but without landing.

This is scheduled for 2024, which the report also concludes.

Before, Artemis 1 will also go to the Moon, but without an astronaut on board.

This mission is normally scheduled for February 2022, but the audit estimates that it will actually take place "in the summer of 2022".

Good news for China or Russia?

The Inspector General's office also criticized spending on the lunar program.

It will cost as much as $ 93 billion by fiscal year 2025, according to the report's estimates, with a cost per launch of $ 4.1 billion for the first four missions.

These delays could allow China or Russia to overtake the United States.

The two countries announced in March the signing of a memorandum to jointly build a space station "on the surface or in orbit" of the moon.

"The International Lunar Science Station consists of a set of experimental research tools created on the surface or in orbit of the Moon and designed to carry out multidisciplinary work," the statement said.

In December, after collecting samples from the lunar star, and before heading back to Earth, the Chinese probe Chang'e-5 planted the first Chinese flag on the moon, 51 years after the United States and its Apollo 11 mission in 1969.

According to the existing program, China's project on the Moon will be carried out in several phases.

The first between 2024-2025 will consist of collecting data by relying on several probes to determine the location of the future base near the lunar south pole.

During the second phase of the project (2026 to 2030), the Chinese mission Chang'e-8 and the Russian mission Luna 28 will settle on the chosen site.

Source: leparis

All tech articles on 2021-11-16

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