Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Beijing time on August 31 morning news, it is reported that after a long delay and overcoming cost overruns and other problems, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) heavy carrier rocket "space launch system" (Space Launch System, referred to as SLS) is about to launch for the first time. The heavy rocket, the most powerful vehicle ever developed by NASA, evolved from the space shuttle and will form the basis of the Artemis project to return to the moon.

SLS was scheduled to launch the Orion spacecraft on the morning of August 29 local time, the first mission of the NASA Artemis lunar exploration program. If all goes according to plan, the 98-meter-high rocket will launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on the space coast at 08:33 EDT (12:33 GMT) to send an unmanned Orion capsule to lunar orbit for a six-week journey. The ship will circle the moon in a large arc and then return to splash down in the Pacific Ocean. However, at the last minute before launch, NASA officials had to cancel the launch mission and postpone it to the next launch window because of a failure in the cooling system of a core RS-25 engine.

For space fans, witnessing the SLS on the launch pad is a surreal experience. For years, they had to make do with digital and analog images and animations to understand the launch effect of SLS. Over time, the images and animations of these simulations, as well as the expected goals and destinations of the deep space rocket, have changed.

NASA began developing SLS in 2011 to replace the constellation program's Ares I and Ares V carrier rockets. Just the year before, the constellation program aimed at returning to the moon came to an end, including a series of new spacecraft, carrier rockets and related hardware, with the goal of using Ares rockets to send Orion spacecraft to the International Space Station, the moon, and eventually to Mars.

At the time, the development of SLS had a budget of US $10 billion and was expected to achieve its first launch by the end of 2016. However, development costs, budget problems, design changes, political obstacles and other issues delayed the first launch of the rocket to 2017, then to 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021, and finally to 2022.

During more than a decade of development of SLS, many major changes have taken place in the space sector, including the emergence of commercial cargo and commercial manned missions on the International Space Station, the development of reusable rockets by SpaceX, and the rapid growth of new private space companies. So far in 2022, the Kennedy Space launch Center has conducted 37 launches, most of which were carried out by SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets.

In 2016, the year SLS planned its first launch, Elon Musk, founder and CEO of SpaceX, revealed the design of the company's next-generation deep space transportation system, a huge combination of rockets and spaceships called Starship.

Musk said that when the starship is put into use, it will become the most powerful carrier rocket in history. His ultimate vision is to use hundreds of starships to land as many as 1 million people on Mars in the coming decades. So far, only a few starship prototypes from SpaceX have been tested for take-off, and none of them have entered orbit for test flight. However, the complete starship orbit test flight is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

If the mission is successful, it will mean that SpaceX's super heavy launch vehicle "from drawing to space" takes much less time than NASA's space launch system. SpaceX's goal is to build a complete fleet of starships that can be launched multiple times a day, with an average launch cost of about $1 million.

NASA also saw the great potential of starships and signed a contract with SpaceX in 2021 to use them as lunar landers for the Artemis 3 mission. Artemis 3 plans to send astronauts near the South Pole of the moon in 2025 or 2026.

By contrast, according to the framework of the Artemis plan and the construction schedule of SLS / Orion, NASA rockets need to be launched about every two years. In addition, the SLS is not designed for reuse, and the entire aircraft (excluding Orion) is based on space shuttle-era technology. The core-level appearance of the SLS is the usual orange hue and diameter of the shuttle's main fuel tank, although the SLS's fuel tank is taller and larger. SLS's two solid-state rocket boosters are also enlarged versions of the space shuttle booster, and their main engines are the remaining RS-25 engines that have been built and used for previous shuttle missions.

The Office of the Inspector General of NASA released a report in November 2021 outlining the increase in development costs since the first SLS iteration and revealing how much it would cost per launch. It is reported that NASA will spend a total of $93 billion (about 642.63 billion yuan) on the Artemis project between 2012 and 2025, while each launch of SLS / Orion will cost about $4.1 billion (about 28.331 billion yuan).

Where is all that money spent? Moreover, if the SpaceX starship has stronger load capacity, higher performance, lower cost, and can be launched more frequently, does it mean that the SLS will be out of date the moment the starship is put into operation?

To put it simply, the answer is yes. But there are some important explanations to be made here. First of all, the development of SLS has attracted many different partners in the United States and around the world. A map on NASA's website accurately lists contractors from each state in the United States and more than 20 partners in Europe. A significant portion of the $93 billion cost of the Artemis plan is allocated to these companies and their employees. For many members of the U.S. Congress, how to keep these jobs in the aviation industry is an issue of concern every year. They hope to improve their political standing among voters and regional airlines. This, in turn, will help SLS and Artemis plan to continue.

In her new book "escaping from Gravity" (Escaping Gravity), Lori Garver, a former deputy director of NASA, describes the reciprocity between Congress and the aviation industry as "self-licking ice cream cones," an operation that dates back to the days of the space shuttle or earlier. Of course, this model is not limited to the aerospace industry; it has been a long-standing practice for members of Congress to deliver a variety of jobs to voters.

So what is the future of SLS? Of course, it will continue, and it will not stop any time soon. The carrier rockets used for Artemis missions 2 to 4 are already being assembled, and the next Artemis mission will not be available for two years (or more). However, for the Artemis project as a whole, its future is still controversial.

If the purpose of NASA is to promote human exploration of space, and assuming that this purpose is supported by ordinary people, then society should concentrate its resources on a public administration institution, rather than relying entirely on a private company or individual who thinks it is capable of doing the task-even if it means that the process of achieving it is inefficient and imperfect.

When so many people are involved in the Artemis project, this solidarity should not be underestimated. When SLS made its debut on the launch pad in March, hundreds of people showed up. On August 29, thousands of people came to the space coast to witness the launch of Artemis 1-not just to see a big rocket.

For some, the Apollo moon landing is an awe-inspiring historical feat; for many more, those glory days are a distant memory. Some Americans hope that the Artemis project will rekindle the spark of human space exploration and make people feel committed to the success of the project.

So is the full cost of SLS and Artemis worth it? Maybe it's worth it. If Artemis plans to achieve all his goals in the next decade or more, then "maybe" will become "very likely". Once SpaceX starships can be launched at Musk's desired frequency, the Artemis program may be cancelled, similar to the Apollo program. But unlike the Apollo program and the space shuttle, the end of SLS means that an active and prosperous space industry has emerged, and a new era of human space exploration will blossom and bear fruit, rather than stagnation for another 50 years.

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