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NASA Is Outsourcing Its Next Moon Lander To a Private Company (pressherald.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the there's-a-first-for-everything dept.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced Thursday that nine U.S. companies will compete to deliver experiments to the lunar surface. The space agency will buy the service and let private industry work out the details on getting there, he said. The Press Herald reports: The goal is to get small science and technology experiments to the surface of the moon as soon as possible. The first flight could be next year; 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of the first manned moon landing. "We're going at high speed," said Thomas Zurbuchen, head of NASA's science mission directorate, which will lead the effort. NASA officials said the research will help get astronauts back to the moon more quickly and keep them safer once they're there. The initial deliveries likely will include radiation monitors, as well as laser reflectors for gravity and other types of measurements, Zurbuchen said. Bridenstine said it will be up to the companies to arrange their own rocket rides. NASA will be one of multiple customers using these lunar services.

8 of 83 comments (clear)

  1. Grumman isn't private? by DatbeDank · · Score: 4, Informative

    Last I checked, Grumman was a private company when the 1st lander was made.

    1. Re:Grumman isn't private? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 3, Informative

      Last I checked, Grumman was a private company when the 1st lander was made.

      Not the same. Grumman built the lander to NASA's design spec, and then turned it over NASA, and NASA managed the landing.

      This time, NASA will just give the mission, and the private companies will figure out the best way to do it.

    2. Re: Grumman isn't private? by NEDHead · · Score: 4, Funny

      Using Agile you can continue to update the rocket all the way to the moon!

    3. Re:Grumman isn't private? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

      I foresee dead astronauts.

      Then you should re-read the summary. The missions are for robots and instruments. There are no astronauts.

  2. Don't care who by TheRealQuestor · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I don't care WHO does it as long as it gets done. Some of my earliest fond memories were sitting with my family in front of our tv and watching the landings in all their black and white detail.I was 4 and it was the coolest thing I had ever seen that it still is 50 years later. We've done some pretty remarkable things since then but nothing compares to watching a man put his feet on a world other than our own.

    1. Re:Don't care who by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Interesting

      You should.

      NASA landing a man on the moon meant that a lot of technology and progress became available to a lot of US companies. If a corporation develops and invents those things alone, you really think they would share that with anyone? They'll take taxpayer money to fund their R&D without giving any of those developments back.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  3. 20 billion a year by melted · · Score: 2

    And we can't send people to ISS without Russian help. This is a national embarrassment. Russians spend one tenth that. That having been said, it's also like 10 days of Pentagon budget. In any case, I'm pretty sure SpaceX will make NASA obsolete within about a decade.

    1. Re:20 billion a year by arth1 · · Score: 2

      when did nasa launch a car into space just because it could?

      There are several cars on the moon, launched by NASA.