NASA's Lunar Exploration Pace Has Not Slowed Down
NASA RFI: Payloads and Research Investigations on the Surface of the Moon released
“NASA is soliciting input to assist the Deputy Associate Administrator for Exploration in the Science Mission Directorate in planning the development of investigations on the lunar surface to be delivered by the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.”
HeroX Helps NASA Advance Moon Exploration with Miniaturized Payload Design Competition
“HeroX, the leading crowdsourcing platform that solves global problems, today launched the crowdsourcing competition “Honey I Shrunk the NASA Payload” on behalf of the NASA Tournament Lab (NTL) and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The challenge calls on the global community of solvers to develop miniature payloads that could be sent to the moon in the next several years to fill strategic lunar knowledge gaps.”
NASA Awards Contract to Deliver Science, Tech to Moon Ahead of Human Missions
“NASA has selected Masten Space Systems of Mojave, California, to deliver and operate eight payloads – with nine science and technology instruments – to the Moon’s South Pole in 2022, to help lay the foundation for human expeditions to the lunar surface beginning in 2024. The payloads, which include instruments to assess the composition of the lunar surface, test precision landing technologies, and evaluate the radiation on the Moon, are being delivered under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative as part of the agency’s Artemis program.”
I like it, money is allocated to make use of robotics technology that didn’t exist back in the 1960s when America had lots of interest in the moon. Plus this stimulates the commercial sector (I’d not be surprised some companies have activity but not saying anything until “product release”). We also see other countries have interests but they have experienced difficulties in soft landing a spacecraft.
Now if only the pace of human exploration would show any signs of moving forward. Wasn’t the HLS vendors supposed to be announced by now? Have they waived off announcing it during a pandemic?
The somewhat vague statements last month said they would announce something in mid-April. And few week delays in this of thing aren’t at all unusual. I think it usually involves getting all the right paperwork signed and correctly filed before making a public announcement. It’s possible that the pandemic and work from home orders have added to that. But not necessarily. I’d give it a few more weeks before starting to wonder.
But this was originally supposed to be before Christmas/early January, then pushed to Feb/March probably due to loverro coming on board. Now with the pandemic how much further will it be delayed? 2024 is closer each day