The CLPS lunar initiative of NASA: much noise and few nuts

diciembre 03, 2018

The CLPS lunar initiative of NASA: much noise and few nuts https://danielmarin.naukas.com/files/2018/12/mccandless_lunar_lander_clps.jpg

The CLPS lunar initiative of NASA: much noise and few nuts







                                On November 29, NASA announced the nine companies selected to participate in the CLPS program, created at the beginning of the year to favor the access of commercial vehicles to the Moon. The CLPS program (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) has been presented as a lunar analogue of the CRS (Commercial Resupply Services) that has allowed subsidizing several private companies to develop cargo ships to the ISS, although the differences are numerous. When the COTS program, the predecessor of the CRS, was conceived, the ISS already existed and had specific cargo transport needs. However, the CLPS must serve to bring scientific payloads to the moon that are still to be defined in the face of a manned lunar program that is still not clear that it will be approved.


McCandless lunar module by Lockheed Martin (NASA).


The nine companies, all with fiscal headquarters in the United States, are Astrobotic Technology, Deep Space Systems, Draper, Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines, Lockheed Martin, Masten Space Systems, Moon Express and Orbit Beyond. As we can see, among the winners there is an aerospace giant, Lockheed Martin, a company dedicated to micro-launchers, Firefly Aerospace, and others that sound good because in their day they chose to win the now canceled Google Lunar X Prize. Indeed, Moon Express was one of the five finalists of the Lunar X Prize and continues in the gap in the CLPS with its family of lunar probes MX. Masten, Astrobotic, Intituitive Machines, Orbit Beyond, Lockheed Martin and Draper all offer, like Moon Express, different small-sized lunar modules. Deep Space Systems only proposes one rover, while Firefly is the only one that comes with an integrated launch system to send its own lunar module (the Beta rocket).




One of the lunar modules of Moon Express for the return of samples (NASA).


The rover from Deep Space Systems (NASA).


This is how the Deep Space Systems rover to the Moon (DSS) would arrive.


The proposal of Lockheed Martin and its McCandless lunar module, named in honor of the homonymous astronaut recently deceased, is striking. McCandless uses design elements from the Phoenix and InSight Martian probes - and, therefore, the Mars Surveyor 2001 and Mars Polar Lander probes - to pose all types of charges, including rovers, on the surface. The lunar module of Astrobotic is called Peregrine and can place up to 265 kg of cargo on the lunar surface and the Masten module is XL-1, developed from the CATALYST initiative (Cargo Transportation and Landing by Soft Touchdown) from NASA and able to place 100 kg on the lunar surface. On the other hand, the Draper module is known as Artemis-7. Unfortunately, there are not many more technical details available. And is that many of the proposals are in a very green phase of its development.


Orbit Beyond Landing (NASA).


Grounding of Intuitive Machines (NASA).


The CLPS program promises to spend 2,600 million dollars over a period of ten years, but this is the maximum amount available and it has not been specified how many companies will be chosen. In fact, in the future new companies could be added to those already selected. In fact, in the short term the nine companies will only receive a small amount of money for a modest initial development before moving on to the next phase, which nobody knows when it will take place. The result is that companies will have to build lunar ships out of their own pockets without guarantees that they will be chosen at a later stage. In short, the CLPS program is more similar to the Google Lunar X Prize than to the CRS program. That is, it is an incentive rather than a proper grant, an informal support from NASA that can provide credibility to a specific private project in the search for investors. Later, NASA will choose one or several companies to carry scientific instruments to determine up to our satellite, payloads that, for now, have neither been identified nor have received any funding.


Proposal by Masten Space Systems (NASA).


Astrobotic Peregrine Landfill (NASA).


Of course, let no one misunderstand me. If the CLPS program manages to get at least one lunar module to reach our satellite, it will have been worth it. But do not expect to see a fleet of private lunar modules on the surface of our satellite in the next ten years. Of course, the CLPS initiative allows NASA to take off and make clear that its priority is the Moon as ordered by the Trump administration, as well as paving the way for an eventual manned return of the human being to the Moon passing through the Gateway station. And, by the way, it is a response - lukewarm, but answer after all - to the ambitious program of Chinese lunar exploration.


Draper Artemis-7 Landfill (NASA).


Launcher and lunar module of Firefly (NASA).


References: 




https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-announces-new-partnerships-for-commercial-lunar-payload-delivery-services