NASA's Artemis 3 Mission | SpaceX, Blue Origin & Dynetics Landers
Human space exploration will finally push beyond low earth orbit for the first time in decades.
This is spearheaded by NASA's Artemis Program consisting of a two-phased approach.
The first phase will crescendo with the Artemis III mission slated for 2024, which will include the first woman astronaut to walk on the Moon.
The second phase involves establishing a sustained human presence on and around the Moon by 2028 with the construction of the Lunar Gateway.
The Gateway is already in development by NASA and other entities around the world.
It's an outpost that will orbit the Moon and will consist of at least four and possibly six modules.
The program is set up so that astronauts will travel to the Gateway via NASA's Space Launch System and Orion Spacecraft.
Then reusable commercial landers will deliver the astronauts to the Moon's surface.
However, for the Artemis 3 mission, instead of making a stop at the Gateway, the astronauts will link directly to a lunar lander.
This depends on all of the parties succeeding in time, but this is the intent at the moment.
On Sept. 30, 2019, NASA issued a solicitation for the development and demonstration of the commercial landers, which will obviously need to be ready by 2024 for the Artemis 3 mission.
On Apr. 30, NASA announced the three selections for the contracts totaling $967 million to SpaceX, Blue Origin and Dynetics.
The complexities of developing the Starship actually weakened SpaceX's proposal in the eyes of NASA.
The agency cited Starship's propulsion system, and it’s rendezvous and fueling operations.
The statement says, "These development and operational risks, in the aggregate, threaten the schedule viability of a successful 2024 demonstration mission."
While NASA considers funding Starship risky, it acknowledges its massive potential.
Starship can carry 100 Tons to the Moons surface, which is about the weight of 71 Tesla Roadsters!
That payload capacity would obviously be useful for establishing a sustained human presence on and around the Moon.
The NASA evaluation also gave credit to the Starship's large interior, pointing out how the spacecraft's common room separates the astronaut's living quarters from its two airlocks.
All things considered, NASA awarded SpaceX $135 million in funding, the smallest of the three awards.
But at least they were selected, unlike the Vivace Corp and Boeing that missed the cut.

Blue Origin is actually part of the quote-unquote National Team.
The team consists of Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Draper Labs.
Lockheed Martin is developing the ascent stage of the HLS.
Northrop Grumman is developing the transfer stage for the lander craft.
Draper Labs is developing avionics and descent guidance.
And Blue Origin is developing the descent stage of the HLS called Blue Moon.
Blue Moon has been in development since 2016 and will be able to deliver up to 4.5 metric tons to the lunar surface.
The HLS is designed to be launched on either Blue Origin's New Glenn Rocket or the ULA's Vulcan, which are both slated to be completed in 2021.

Finally, there's Dynetics, a subsidiary of the Defense Contractor Leidos, which can be summed up as like a Lockheed Martin lite?
Dynetics was awarded $253 million and is teaming up with the Sierra Nevada Corporation.
Their lander will be able to accommodate two crew members on lunar surface missions where it can serve as habitation for about a week.
Or it can ferry up to four astronauts to and from the lunar surface.
So, the three companies will have 10 months to work on their landers before NASA decides to awards additional contracts to at least two of the teams.

The Moon's south polar region has become the most popular targeted destinations in the solar system.
The renewed interest in the Moon traces back to ISRO's incredible Chandrayaan-1.
Chandrayaa-1 contained the NASA Mini-SAR experiment that discovered the presence of water in more than 40 craters from just that one experiment.
This discovery revolutionized how we view the Moon, sparking renewed interest in it.
The late Dr. Paul Spudis estimated that there are at least 600 million metric tons of water-ice within polar region craters.
That much water can produce enough rocket fuel to launch the retired Space Shuttle once per day for 2,200 years!
This is because the craters in these regions are permanently darkened with temperatures as low as -248 degrees Celsius, which is colder than the surface of Pluto.
Dr. Spudis was a leading Moon Exploration expert and was a proponent of returning to the Moon and establishing a Moonbase for decades.
Sadly in 2018, he passed away from complications involving lung cancer and will not be able to witness the incredible events to come.
I hope we can honor his legacy in 2024 when we return to the Moon.