NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS)

Tony Bella's at it again, creating graphics showing/comparing NASA's Orion spacecraft and SpaceX's Starship HLS (lunar lander).

NASA Artemis 3 Lunar landing site candidates.

SpaceX will select its own site for an earlier uncrewed test landing of Starship HLS*, which will also be within 6° latitude of the Lunar South Pole.

* Starship Human Landing System

Space News article

https://spacenews.com/nasa-selects-potential-lunar-landing-sites-for-artemis-3/

Quote

 

NASA selects potential lunar landing sites for Artemis 3

 

WASHINGTON — NASA has selected 13 regions around the south pole of the moon that it is considering for the first crewed landing of the Artemis program later this decade.

 

The 13 locations released by NASA Aug. 19 reach include multiple sites that could host landings by SpaceX’s Starship vehicle serving as the lunar lander for the Artemis 3 mission that will carry the first NASA astronauts to the surface of the moon since Apollo 17 a half-century ago.

>

The 13 locations, each about 15 by 15 kilometers, are located within six degrees of latitude of the south pole.

 

They are named:

 

• Faustini Rim A

• Peak Near Shackleton

• Connecting Ridge

• Connecting Ridge Extension

• de Gerlache Rim 1

• de Gerlache Rim 2

• de Gerlache-Kocher Massif

• Haworth

• Malapert Massif

| Leibnitz Beta Plateau

• Nobile Rim 1

• Nobile Rim 2

• Amundsen Rim

>

Starship HLS elevator prototype

NASA Starship presentation for IAC 2022

PDF link in the first tweet.

Quote

Conclusions

Responsible for the transportation of humans between lunar orbit and the lunar surface, the Human Landing System program is at the center of Artemis, designed to yield groundbreaking science, develop, and utilize lunar surface resources and leverage what we learn at the Moon for future Mars missions. NASA is committed to establishing a sustained lunar presence, and through Option A and working closely with SpaceX, the HLS program will facilitate the rapid development and demonstration of the human landing system that will deliver the first woman, and in a later mission, the first person of color, to the Moon. The HLS capability demonstrated during the Artemis III mission will evolve into a safe and affordable long-term approach to accessing the lunar surface and to being one of many customers purchasing lunar transportation services. 

 

Through Artemis, NASA and its international and commercial partners will establish a cadence of trips to the Moon where American astronauts will conduct science investigations, technology demonstrations, and establish a long-term presence to prepare for humanity’s next giant leap – sending astronauts on a roundtrip to Mars.

 

The HLS program continues its hard work toward  achieving major agency milestones as NASA embarks on its mission to explore deep space and beyond this decade and into the future.

Starship HLS picks up another lunar landing - Artemis IV.

Also updates on the seond  lander competitors, with Lockheed-Martin offering a nuclear thermal Earth departure engine.

https://spacenews.com/lunar-landing-restored-for-artemis-4-mission/

Quote

Lunar landing restored for Artemis 4 mission

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — NASA has restored plans to include a lunar landing on its Artemis 4 mission to the moon later this decade, months after saying that the mission would instead be devoted to assembly of the lunar Gateway.

>

Kirasich confirmed after the panel that NASA had decided to include a landing on Artemis 4 again. The mission would likely use the “Option B” version of SpaceX’s Starship lander, he said.

>

[...] Option B would fund changes to the Starship lander to support more ambitious missions in the later “sustainable” phase of Artemis, and include a second demonstration mission.

>

Crewed Starship HLS for Artemis IV confirmed.

This is an Option B contract which only SpaceX was allowed to bid on. Option B funds $1.15 billion for additional capabilities; docking at the Lunar Gateway, more crew & payload, etc. This puts total Starship HLS funding at over $4 billion.

That's 3 NASA lunar landings for Starship HLS - one uncrewed landing test in 2024 and two crewed landings; Artemis III (2025) and Artemis IV (2027)

A second crewed lunar lander will be competed under a different contract. 

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-awards-spacex-second-contract-option-for-artemis-moon-landing-0

SLD: competition for a 2nd  human lander system (HLS) in the Artemis program. This in addition to the Starship HLS vehicle.

https://spacenews.com/blue-origin-and-dynetics-bidding-on-second-artemis-lunar-lander/

Quote

 

Blue Origin and Dynetics bidding on second Artemis lunar lander

WASHINGTON — Teams led by Blue Origin and Dynetics, runners-up in NASA’s first competition to develop a lander to transport astronauts to the lunar surface, have submitted proposals for a NASA competition to select a second lander.

>

[...] The company NASA selects for SLD will fly one demonstration mission, likely no earlier than Artemis 5 in the late 2020s, and be eligible to compete for future missions.

>

NASA expects to select the winner of the SLD competition in June 2023.

NASA selects team for second lunar lander,

Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin, Draper, Boeing, Astrobotic, and Honeybee Robotics