NASA continues to prepare for the Artemis program to put humans back on the lunar surface in a few years. As they work through their way of procuring Human Landing Systems (HLS) to take astronauts to the Moon, NASA announced their plans of adding several more and hiring a second provider to ensure competition and redundancy.
Developing lunar landers is just one step towards their goal of sending people to Mars. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson expects this to happen sometime between the 2030 and 2040s.
Illustration of Apollo 11 spacecraft landing on the Moon.
NASA Picks SpaceX For Human Landing System
In 2021, NASA picked Elon Musk's SpaceX company to build a lunar lander that would safely take two American astronauts to the Moon. One will be the first woman and the other the first person of color to reach the lunar surface.
The space agency's Space Launch System rocket will be sending four astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft to orbit the Moon, in which two astronauts will transfer to SpaceX's HLS for the final leg of their journey of stepping on the lunar surface.
They will stay there for a week to explore the surface before boarding the lander for their short trip back where the Orion and colleagues are waiting before heading back to Earth.
SpaceX's price for the HLS is a milestone-based contract that amounts to $2.89 billion. NASA associate administrator for Human Explorations and Operations Mission Directorate Kathy Leuders said that this award will allow NASA and its partners to complete the first crewed mission to the lunar surface in the 21st century as the space agency takes a step toward equality for deep space exploration.
She added that the mission is a crucial step to put humanity on a path to sustainable lunar exploration while simultaneously keeping their eye on other cosmic bodies in the Solar System, such as Mars.
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NASA Welcomes Proposals From Companies for Another Lunar Lander
NASA originally planned to select multiple private crewed landers for Artemis, but Congress didn't allocate enough budget prompting them to went with SpaceX solely. The two finalists for the award - Dynetics and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin - protested.
Blue Origin even filed a lawsuit against NASA, but it was dismissed late last year. However, the space just announced that they are now open to receiving proposals for another lunar lander for the Artemis Program, Space.com reported.
Lisa Watson-Morgan, the program manager for HLS Program at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, said in a statement recently that this strategy will expedite progress towards a long-term and sustaining lander capability as early as 2026 to 2027.
The decision comes months after the Senate Appropriations Committee directed NASA to choose a second company for the HLS project. NASA now expects to have two companies to safely ferry astronauts to the surface of the Moon under the guidance of the space agency.
Nelson said during a press conference that Congress is committed to making sure that the space agency has more than one lunar lander to choose from for future space missions.
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Check out more news and information on the Artemis Program in Science Times.