NASA updates lander plans for Moon landings

arstechnica.com

I'm very excited for a return to the moon, and NASA released a lot of details today! It's fascinating to see the nuances that each lander introduces into the plan, such that they have two fairly different plans for Orion depending on which lander is used.

I have to admit I'm still a little perplexed that it's going to take so many launches to make it happen. Both landers need several launches to get enough fuel/boosters in orbit so that their landers can make a translunar injection.

> I'm still a little perplexed that it's going to take so many launches to make it happen

In-orbit propellant transfer is a new capability for our species. It may be the most valuable thing to come out of the Artemis programme.

We don’t have good models to predict whether the number will be 6 or 22 or fuck you. The data we’ll get out of the effort, however, is worth more than moon rocks.

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