The new plans are a significant change to Artemis programme.<\/p>\n
Isaacman said the current architecture was “not a pathway to success.”<\/p>\n
“You don’t go from one uncrewed launch of SLS [Artemis I], wait three years, go around the Moon [Artemis II], wait three years and land on it.”<\/p>\n
He said sending the Orion capsule – which is the spacecraft that the astronauts will travel to the Moon in – and a lunar lander into low-Earth orbit first would reduce risks.<\/p>\n
“I would certainly much rather have the astronauts testing out the integrated systems of the lander and Orion in low-Earth orbit than on the Moon,” he said.<\/p>\n
“It’s also an opportunity for us, maybe, to get our suits up there before the astronauts actually have to wear them on the surface of the Moon … this is all going to help take down risk for a subsequent landing.”<\/p>\n
However Nasa’s lunar plans have a major missing part – the lander that will take astronauts to the Moon’s surface has not yet been selected.<\/p>\n
Elon Musk’s SpaceX company has a contract to build the lander – which will be flown to the Moon on a SpaceX Starship rocket. But delays to the Starship rocket have led Nasa to ask SpaceX for a new streamlined plan to speed a return to the Moon.<\/p>\n
Nasa has also asked rival company Blue Origin – which is owned by Jeff Bezos – to come up with an accelerated plan for a lunar lander.<\/p>\n
Isaacman said the Artemis III docking in low Earth orbit could take place with one or both of the landers.<\/p>\n
The US is under pressure to return to the Moon. China is aiming for a lunar landing by 2030, and has been making steady progress towards this.<\/p>\n
Both nations are planning to land at the Moon’s south pole – and are competing for the best spots to build their lunar bases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The new plans are a significant change to Artemis programme. Isaacman said the current architecture was “not a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[90,416,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-453441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-science","tag-space","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}