NASA wants heavy-lift landers so they can be used in the Artemis program. It is not surprising if we think that we are facing a program that is going to send human beings back to the Moon. This time, also, with the intention of staying long term.
Heavy-lift landers will be very useful
The Artemis program is one of NASA’s most interesting programs. One of its great objectives is to establish a permanent presence on the Moon. This will require carrying much heavier cargo than what was carried during the Apollo program. The companies SpaceX and Blue Origin will be in charge of providing the vehicles with which the crews will land. But in addition, both companies are already developing the vehicles that will transport this heavy cargo from space to the surface of the satellite.
One of the main novelties of Artemis is that, on this occasion, it is not simply seeking to send human beings to the Moon. Different scientific experiments are going to be carried out. Work is also underway to build a new space station in lunar orbit (called Lunar Gateway). And, of course, one of the great objectives is that it serves as learning. An intermediate step for the manned missions that will be carried out to Mars in the 2030s or 2040s. It is the great objective of the United States.
At this time, the launch of Artemis III will not take place before September 2026. The Blue Origin and SpaceX landers will have a very clear role. They will be responsible for taking the crew from the Lunar Gateway to the lunar surface and back to space. However, later missions will be much more demanding. The goal is for the stay on the surface of the Moon to be longer and longer. For this to become a reality, heavy-lift landers will have to be used. They will transport that heavy cargo from our planet to the Moon.
The equipment needed on the surface of the Moon
NASA has explained what that heavy cargo will be. They’ve mentioned things like pressurized rovers or large components. The goal is for both SpaceX and Blue Origin to modify the designs of their landers and create variants for transporting cargo. This loading version will have to have the necessary mechanisms for these tasks. The advantage is that they will be unmanned and therefore will not need life support systems. Something that will allow them to be less complex and lighter.
As NASA explained, the work is still in a very early phase. Both companies are working on their preliminary designs, which will have to be sent to the agency for analysis. This will help refine what those ships will look like and establish a working basis for the final design. The Artemis program will allow the Moon to be explored in a way that was not possible with Apollo. Astronauts are going to spend much more time on its surface. There they will learn to live and work in another world.
They will also investigate regions not explored until now on our satellite. They will establish the foundations of those bases that we want to build in the future. It will serve as a step towards settlement on Mars. It is a very ambitious program that combines the work of space agencies from around the world. As well as private companies and the academic sector. For all this, it requires great investment and innovation. Something that we can see in the combination of the SLS, the Orion capsule and all the systems that are in development.
A first step to explore deep space with manned missions
If everything goes well, Artemis will mark the beginning of a new era. She will open the doors to manned space exploration of deep space. The objective, in reality, is that everything learned on the Moon can be applied in the manned exploration of Mars. However, no crew has yet been sent back to our satellite. This will happen with the Artemis II mission in 2025. Although the objective of that mission is simply to orbit around it, it will serve to verify that the Orion capsule is ready for manned missions.
In addition to Artemis III, scheduled for September 2026, Artemis IV is expected to launch in September 2028. This mission will be important because it will also deploy the first components of the Lunar Gateway space station. Further on the horizon are Artemis V and VI, respectively scheduled for 2030 and 2031. In both missions the intention is to use an Orion capsule that docks with the Lunar Gateway. They will also add new segments to that station and send astronauts to the surface of the Moon.
The road ahead is still very long. The goal, still distant, is to send a manned mission to Mars. Although there is a lot to learn for this, not only with the Artemisa program, but also in other areas. Something that has been reflected in the different missions that are simulating what a stay on Mars would be like, or in studies on how human beings behave in conditions similar to those of the long journey to the red planet. What happens in the coming years will be key to the success of that mission to the red planet…
References: Universe Today
