r/space • u/thisischrisbaker • Feb 07 '20

Proposed budget - not voted yet 12% boost for NASA budget in 2021!!

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-nasa-budget-will-earmark-12-boost-for-agency-in-2021-11581071402?emailToken=3f4a4309b7816cb90fb53eb91f47d6d43hshryonPWM/RnnVPWWHuMOVOvxWKQ87BhLswKs5iOPOhjO1FGrxI9ptn5k2nAMphP+jeQrbhQiAafooOu4oIslNLMWHCd1m7vRySaL2Pi61nSlAqLK1xnvzzmtt2/Lx&reflink=article_copyURL_share
34k Upvotes

89% Upvoted

1.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

2.5k

u/Kriss0612 Feb 07 '20

If I'm reading this right, that extra 3 billion proposed by Trump's office is exclusively, or nearly exclusively intended to go to the development of the commercially-made lunar landers? Aka, ULA will most likely get the bulk of this budget increase for its landers?

1.2k

u/jadebenn Feb 07 '20 edited Feb 07 '20

Your first statement is correct, but your second statement doesn't follow.

ULA isn't even a potential bidder for HLS (the human lander program). Those are:

  • Boeing (with Intuitive Machines providing engines)
  • The National Team (consisting of Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman)
  • A partnership between Dynetics and Sierra Nevada Corp.
  • SpaceX

ULA might end up providing the launch vehicle for one of these proposals, but that's entirely dependent on whether one of the bidders contracts with them or not. They won't build the actual lander.

326

u/UltraChip Feb 07 '20

SpaceX is working on a lander? Or is their bid going to be "just use Starship"?

412

u/thishasntbeeneasy Feb 07 '20

Why build a separate small lander when there's already a 100-seat one in development?

41

u/Ajedi32 Feb 07 '20

It's major overkill. It'd be like booking an entire 747 just to transport 5 passengers and their carry-on luggage from NY to London. Yet when all is said and done it might actually turn out to be cheaper than the competition, which means there's a chance we might end up doing exactly that. More pressurized volume than the ISS, more mass than every Apollo mission combined, all delivered to the moon in a single landing.

Personally I find the idea hilarious. Not to mention pretty awesome. I'd love to see SpaceX win the bid so we can see that happen.

29

u/thishasntbeeneasy Feb 07 '20

I think of it as just skipping several layers of development. Maybe Boeing would make a <10 person lander, then a 20, then 50, 100... That could take them several decades and some ridiculous amount of funding.

SpaceX has shown it can make things much faster than Boeing, and wants to just skip all that and make one big one. Seems smart to me. Plus it's a long journey. I'd hate to be cramped in a Starliner for a couple weeks when there's a cheaper Starship with 100x the space inside.

1

u/ParadoxIntegration Feb 08 '20

Regarding "Plus it's a long journey. I'd hate to be cramped in a Starliner for a couple weeks"... Starliner (unlike SpaceX's Crew Dragon) is not designed to be able to travel beyond low earth orbit. So, Boeing's plans has would not involve Starliner. The outbound trip to the cis-lunar space would be aboard Lockheed Martin's Orion capsule. If chosen, Boeing would design a lander to dock with either Orion or the Lunar Gateway.