Isaacman wants NASA to returns humans to the Moon as quickly as possible. This includes flying Artemis II around the Moon in 2026, and then landing the Artemis III mission later this decade.
Isaacman has been a private astronaut who was with a crew that has gotten further from Earth than anyone except the Apollo Astronauts.
Isaacman wants NASA to send humans to Mars as soon as possible. Senator Cruz wanted Isaacman to say NASA would establish a sustained presence at the Moon.
The committee has written authorizing legislation to mandate this, Cruz reminded Isaacman.
“If that’s the law, then I am committed to it,” Isaacman said.
Cruz wanted Isaacman to commit to flying the International Space Station through at least 2030, which is the space agency’s current date for retiring the orbital laboratory. Isaacman said that seemed reasonable and added that NASA should squeeze every possible bit of research out of the ISS.
When asked about the Lunar Gateway, he said he would work with Congress and space agency officials to determine which programs are working and which ones are not.
Isaacman is willing to fly SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft for Artemis II and Artemis III but likely no SLS rocket upgrades or Lunar Gateway.
Isaacman talked about making Mars and the moon exploration and development affordable. Space observers like myself know that this would only be possible with heavy SpaceX involvement.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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Good. A lunar space station is dumb. eventually yes, cause where wont we have space stations, but it shouldn’t have one before 2035. Starship will enable so so much, people can’t fathom what’s to come. It will be the key that unlocks space. No one will want to keep the ancient & constantly breaking ISS online, when the superheavy booster, with one launch, can launch a fully completed, no in-space assembly required, space station, and it could have a larger volume then the entire ISS. I’m eagerly looking forward to it getting refined enough to be a super reliable work horse, like we currently have with the Falcon 9.
How about taking a starship or two and move the ISS out of earth orbit and to a lunar orbit using the power of the starship latched onto the ISS instead of deorbiting the thing a piece at a time.
It’s a used station but should work for awhile as a lunar space station.
Needs to largely switch to an X prize model, where NASA sets milestones and rewards for reaching them, but doesn’t get into the weeds about HOW they’re to be reached. That leverages a lot more money than the prize itself.
NASA has long had an obsession with insisting that things be accomplished in a particular and baroque fashion. Like the lunar gateway. I swear, when they send an intern to fetch lunch, they probably insist that he establish a base camp in the Taco Bell parking lot, return, and THEN go get the lunch!
So it would have to be for broadly defined end goals, like “land 100 tons of cargo at point X”, not specifying how it gets done.
The hardest part will be allowing minimal taxpayer expenditure without significant, obvious, and perennial military/ national security/ national glory results. Privatizing as much as possible, in the spirit of the current administration, is the fast-track. This may require significant development of cislunar space -and- a robust and regular return route to Mars, at least in development stages, in the interim. Billionaires may need to put up much of the seed money.