My ramblings

Space and rockets

I was going to write about something else, but then NASA suddenly showed which companies would provide the lunar lander for the Artemis program and now I just want to gosh about space. Because I love space! It is one of the most mindbogglingly big and amazing things there is. In fact it is literally the biggest thing that is, because it is everything. Even at the speed of light, at 300 million meters a second it still takes days or months for the sun's light to leave the solarsystem, depending on where you place the boundary. It then takes 4 years to reach our nearest star. 4 years at the spedd of light! And that is just a tiny distance within our galaxy, which over 100 thousand light years across. Even our galaxy is just a pebble, close to a few other pebbles. That cluster then becomes a grain of sand on a beach. And that beach is still just a tiny insignificant spec compared to just the parts of the universe we can observe. Space is massive and I love every bit of it.

Now, if there is one thing cooler than space, it is space travel. I'm a massive geek when it comes to anything that has to do with space travel, rockets and space exploration. Probably why Kerbal space program is one of my favorite game. Think about it, just over 50 years ago, humanity went to the frickin moon! We put three men into  a tiny capsule and strapped that capsule on top of what was essantialy several glorified missiles stacked on top of eachother into a 110m tall rocket, the Saturn V. And all the way at the bottom were the five most powerful engines ever made which essantialy just made an explosion and aimed it downwards. And now, over 50 years later, humanity is finally getting close to land on the moon again.

I'll be honest, despite how 2020 has turned out so far, there has been to things that haven't failed. Many good video games will come out this year or already has been released. And the second is the spacelaunch industry. NASA will launch their Mars 2020 rover, Perseverance. We might finally see the SLS launch for the first time for Artemis 1. Astronauts will be launched from American soil for the first time since 2011. On a 70m tall rocket of which the first stage, which is at the height of a multistory building, will land on a drone ship in the middle of the ocean! Then there's also the breakneck speed at which SpaceX producing their Starship. A fully resuable, super heavy lift rocket with a full height of 118 meters which will take us to Mars!

Just as quick sidenote. I like the company SpaceX, not the man running it. The only thing I'll give Elon Musk credit for is having an ambitious idea for space travel and executing it. Otherwise, I don't like the guy.

Anyways, as I said, I wanted to write this after I saw that NASA had announced who would make the lunar lander for the Artemis program. They ended up going for three proposals. One from Dynetic, which I don't know much about, but it seems like a very similar idea to what the Apollo program used. It seems focused on longer duration stays from what I can tell, but again, not really the one I knew the most about.

Another design that got picked was Blue Origin's lander proposal. Although, Blue Origin themselves only really make decent stage. Lockheed will make the acent stage and Northrop Grumman will make the transfer element. There isn't really much information about how it will operate and what will be prioritized, but it will probably be launched on Blue Origin's in progress New glenn rocket.

Lastly was SpaceX's design, which I was kinda suprised that NASA picked. It also seems like it will be a modified version of Starship. As in Starship, the 50 meters tall 2nd stage, not Starship the entire 118 meters tall rocket. Anyways, it seems like they will design a Starship optimised for lunar landing. The heatshields and fins are seemingly removed, meaning it won't have the capability to return to Earth. In addition there appears to be bigger and improved super Draco engines installed into the sides of Starship which will probably be used for landing. Mostly because using the main raptor engines could potentially fling lunar dust into orbit. Or just destroy the landing site. This will also be the design wich could carry the most payload to and from the moon. Especially considering that it is 50 meters tall and can take over 100 tons into a translunar trajectory with orbital refuling.

To be hones, this coming decade might be the most exiting decade for the space industry in a long time. There are so many cool things planned. The 2024 goal for human landings on the moon doesn't seem too distant anymore. Considering that SLS is finally beginning to take shape and will maybe launch Artemis 1 this year. In addition to the lunar gateway being skipped for the first couple landings on the moon, it might just be possible. Then there is SpaceX's plan of getting humans to Mars sometime within this decade. Considering the speed at which they are building Starship prototypes and test articles, I wouldn't see that as an impossibility. I can't wait to see what will come. Until then, I hope you're all having a wonderful day. Goodbye.