Another Moon to Mars Architecture Concept Review – But No Firm Landing Date
Keith’s note: According to NASA PAO: “During the review, NASA also began to define potentially viable and affordable opportunities for new programs and projects that close capability gaps. NASA will share the results of this year’s Architecture Concept Review cycle early next year. This will include an update to the agency’s Architecture Definition Document and associated white papers, which provide additional detail on results from this year’s strategic analysis cycle. Both the updated Architecture Definition Document and white papers will be made available on NASA’s Moon to Mars architecture webpages.” Meanwhile, based on the latest GAO report, earlier GAO and OIG reports, uncertain budgets, cost overruns, schedule delays etc., you gotta wonder when NASA is going to formally fess up and say that the Moon landing date is “NET [year]”.
3 responses to “Another Moon to Mars Architecture Concept Review – But No Firm Landing Date”
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The schedule is out of NASAs hands. Everything is dependent on the availability of StarShip and particularly the StarShip Moon lander. 3-5 years seems a reasonable estimation, so perhaps by the end of the decade?
SLS and Orion still have to fly with crew successful on Artemis 2 which is in NASA hands. Given they are still working out the heat shield and others snafus from last flight that means as that slips into 2025 moon landing slides to 2026. Given SpaceX is hoping to get next starship launch off this month and has a few other shipsets ready to fly other test flights according to Marcia Smith the next flight will include prop transfer demo as part of the flight test
It is apparent that both the SpaceX side and NASA side have a LOT of open items! NASA is still pushing towards a Lunar mission with very few chances to test and possibly fix items on SLS/Orion. SpaceX still is hoping to get a fuel transfer demo, hoping to demonstrate a Lunar lander, etc etc etc. The NASA and SpaceX teams have one thing in common – a very optimistic schedule. If there is an attempted Lunar landing in 2025 I will be very surprised.