- Part of NASA’s plans to return to the Moon involves the launch of the biggest rocket it has built, the Space Launch System.
- This system would ferry astronauts from Lunar orbit to the Lunar surface but the current cost of the project is much too high.
- NASA will have to start tracking its costs more closely or sign a contract with a company that can produce a system that NASA can use.
This decade is meant to mark humanity’s return to the Moon but as it turns out, even with the technological advancements we’ve achieved, the well-entrenched capitalist society, and multiple spacefaring organisations, exploring the endless void is very expensive.
This is according to a report published by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in the US. The office has been investigating how much the development of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) – which is a key factor in returning to the Moon – is costing the organisation.
The reason for this report needing to be compiled is rather bizarre as NASA reportedly isn’t tracking the cost of the project with all that much accuracy.
“Because the original SLS version’s cost and schedule commitments, or baselines, were tied to the launch of Artemis I, ongoing production and other costs needed to sustain the program going forward are not monitored. Instead, NASA created a rolling 5-year estimate of production and operations costs to ensure that the costs fit within NASA’s overall budget. However, neither the estimate nor the annual budget request track costs by Artemis mission or for recurring production items. As a result, the 5-year estimate and the budget requests are poor measures of cost performance over time,” writes the GAO.
The organisation reports that according to NASA’s own senior officials, the SLS program is unaffordable at current cost levels.
“As the program is spending billions of dollars to produce hardware for future Artemis missions, some of the concerns raised in our past reports are now occurring. For example, NASA has awarded a contract which includes costs up to nearly $2 billion to be reimbursed for production of the core stages needed for Artemis III and Artemis IV,” adds the GAO.
The accountability office says that given the trend it has seen so far, further delays for the Artemis missions could lead to even greater costs.
All of this creates confusion regarding how much the SLS and overall Artemis missions are costing NASA.
With these alarms being rung, the space agency has developed a long-term affordability and sustainability initiative. Through these mechanisms, NASA will explore other operating models including joint ventures or a contract with a company that provides launch services.
“In essence, NASA would purchase future SLS launches and payload capabilities from a contractor who would own, operate, and integrate the SLS vehicle. The officials told us the agency is still reviewing its future strategy in advance of releasing a request for proposals to support an eventual contract award,” the GAO added.
The SLS is the vessel that will ferry astronauts from Earth to the Moon’s orbit. The SLS won’t actually land on the Moon, that will be done with a vessel designed and produced by SpaceX or Blue Origin.
Now, however, the entire vessel that takes NASA astronauts from Earth to the Moon could be designed and produced by another company if NASA can’t get its cost-cutting in order.
SpaceX’s Starship and Super Heavy rocket is designed with the intention of getting humans to the Moon but it has yet to have a successful liftoff that doesn’t end in a fiery ball of fuel and metal raining from the heavens. The company is waiting on permission from the Federal Aviation Authority to launch the rocket again.
The last time SpaceX launched Starship it sparked fires and sent chunks of concrete hurtling into the ocean.
All of this is to say that humanity’s return to the Moon may be delayed thanks to the great invention of money. We wonder if the pilots of the UAP’s that some say have visited our planet have this same problem when designing and launching their vehicles.
