आईसीटी समाचार
NASA has revealed plans to create a second human lunar lander as part of its Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the Moon. The space agency is seeking proposals from commercial space businesses for landers that can transport humans to and from the Moon's orbit and surface, with the objective of having them ready by 2026 or 2027 at the earliest. Artemis, which seeks to place the first woman and person of color on the Moon, already has a contract with commercial partner SpaceX to create a lunar lander.
The space agency awarded SpaceX a $2.9 billion contract in 2021 to convert the company's future Starship vehicle into a lander capable of transporting humans to and from the lunar surface. Both NASA and SpaceX are now attempting to make the first Artemis lunar landing as soon as 2025, while this is deemed implausible. In order to encourage competition and keep costs down, NASA planned to choose two companies to design human lunar landers for Artemis.
SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Dynetics were the three candidates that the government was going to choose from. However, owing to budget restrictions, the agency eventually picked one. NASA sought $3.4 billion from Congress in 2021 to support the construction of the Artemis lunar landers, but only obtained $850 million, or about 25% of what was requested. As a consequence, NASA chose SpaceX, partly because the business had submitted the most cost-effective proposal.
The choice to choose just one business, on the other hand, did not sit well with the losing finalists. Blue Origin then proceeded to fight NASA in federal court over the decision, but eventually lost the case. Despite the lawsuit, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson emphasized his desire for two lunar lander providers in the future, with the expectation that Congress would finance the project.
At one time, it appeared as though Congress might order NASA to do just that. The Senate Appropriations Committee filed legislation in October that would require NASA to select a second business to design a lunar lander for Artemis. However, the most recent budget agreement passed for 2022 did not require NASA to do so, but it did provide the space agency with the entire $1.195 billion requested for lunar landers development.
