NASA Getting Closer to Completing a Heavy-Lift Rocket for Next Moon Landing
While everyone is paying attention to Mars, NASA is hard at work getting things in order for the next moon landing. It’s predicted that by 2024, astronauts will be able to travel to and from the moon with relative ease thanks to the efforts that NASA is putting into moon travel at the present time.
And, now we know that NASA is even closer to reaching its goal. They’ve set the stage, quite literally, for a heavy-lift rocket, which means that transportation to and from the moon is more feasible than ever before. The building of such an impressive structure is still underway, but it’s clear that NASA has a clear goal in mind and that they have no intention of losing focus.
The Next Moon Landing
The next moon landing, named Artemis after Apollo’s sister, has been underway as an effort to honor the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing. However, things have changed in 50 years, and today’s technology allows for a much more efficient and insightful journey. Since early 2017, NASA has been hard at work preparing for this feat, and this time, they have no intention of making it an isolated event. So, they’re hard at work developing new ways to make travel to and from the moon highly efficient so that it can be executed far more frequently than ever before.
Thanks to the generous budget handed to NASA, they’ve been able to develop new technology that will aid in the physical transportation of the space vehicle. This includes a heavy-lift rocket launch, a brand-new vehicle and the Gateway lunar outpost.
This new vehicle, known as the Orion spacecraft, will launch the first woman and the next man to the moon. The new heavy-lift rocket launch that’s being designed allows the spacecraft to be transported, and a new press release shows that NASA has already begun the building process and is more ahead of the game than most previously had thought.
So, How Close Are They?
The core foundation of the heavy-lift rocket launch has already been tackled, and space vehicle enthusiasts are impressed. Needless to say, it’s massive, being about 65 meters tall with a core of 58 meters. That’s significantly taller than the launch that was developed for the first moon landing 50 years ago.
Although the vehicle itself is delayed in terms of its building stages, the launch seems to be moving along at a rapid pace. Engineers are already developing a hydrogen fuel tank that will attach to the upper portion of the stage. It will consist of three crucial structures that each aid in the launching process itself and should be more energy-efficient than anything that we’ve ever seen in the past.
The stage will also bring together two rocket boosters that utilize the latest in engineering technology to properly propel the vehicle into space. It’s believed that this will allow for an impressive thrust of 4 million kilometers, which up until now has been unheard of.
Goal is 2024
The latest news from NASA regarding the development of the heavy-lift rocket launch means that we’re that much closer to our next moon landing. While NASA is hoping to launch by 2024, it’s possible that we will see the landing before that considering how quickly things are moving along.