SLS actually dates back to Obama’s first term. Artemis is just the plan to use SLS for lunar missions instead of nothing in particular.
China landed a probe on the dark side in 2019. I thought all the rideshares on Artemis I were cubesats, which are probably too small to land anywhere.
It’s a stretch to say that an SLS launch is a step towards a permanent lunar colony. SLS can’t launch frequently enough to support a permanent anything, and it can only launch a few times at all before they run out of RS-25s to scavenge off of old shuttles.
Plus, critically, SLS can’t actually land anything on the moon!
It’s a stretch to say that an SLS launch is a step towards a permanent lunar colony. SLS can’t launch frequently enough to support a permanent anything, and it can only launch a few times at all before they run out of RS-25s to scavenge off of old shuttles.
That’s kind of my point.
Plus, critically, SLS can’t actually land anything on the moon!
NASA seems to think otherwise.
“There” is just lunar orbit. A separate spacecraft has to fly from earth, pick up the astronauts from Orion, and fly them on to the moon. It’s very silly.
That’s my view of pretty much the whole of the man in space enterprise. I won’t be around to see how it works out so good luck.
Not sure why you think the MAGA folks are especially excited for this. I don’t think getting votes was a goal (heck, Biden will probably get a ton of unearned credit), but do agree that maybe 90% of the motivation for putting humans on the moon again is that it generates good PR for NASA and maybe for America as a whole. It’s hard to get mad though when the government wastes money on vastly dumber things like making F-35s, why not do a cool space stunt.
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NASA is 0.48% of the budget, we spend more on way shittier things
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Space exploration is still a decent way to get money in the hands of scientists and engineers. Some of the issues that need to be solved to get to Mars or have a semi permanent presence on the moon are interesting and might lead to discoveries usefull on Earth. The public is interested again which helps funding until we get to Mars and people get upset again that it costs too much.
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The problem is that SLS isn’t actually cool. The technology is all half a century old. The main engines themselves are half a century old. The choice isn’t really between wasting money on F-35s and wasting it on SLS, it’s between wasting money on SLS and building space telescopes or nuclear-thermal rockets or other actually cool space stuff.
We can and are doing some of all of those things though. People, including me, make that argument about building the next collider too, but I have to admit it’s not so clear it’s true. There could even be an effect in the other direction because the more we spend the more interest and support there is for related research and science in general.
Launch is scrubbed. Now purported to happen Friday. Bummer.
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heh we’ll see
NASA’s having a hard time with leaks
https://twitter.com/SpaceflightNow/status/1566062484666056712
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God damn it. Kari stole my saying.
https://twitter.com/KariByron/status/1566096835650850816?s=20&t=CFXnC9d2NAPwgaAprR7bFQ
Umm, which ones did we pick?
Fast and good. Doesn’t come with any guarantee but cheap can be disastrous. Don’t hate on Kari.
It certainly wasn’t fast. Good is looking a little dubious too…
You pay your money and you take your chances. All three options are relative. Nobody else is getting there first though.