WEBVTT - Rerun: The Artemis Program 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:12.360 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 0:00:12.400 --> 0:00:15.640 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jovan Strickland. 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:18.680 I'm an executive producer with iHeart Podcasts. Send how the 0:00:18.760 --> 0:00:22.040 tech are you? So? Initially I had planned to have 0:00:22.120 --> 0:00:24.560 a brand new episode because we have so few left 0:00:24.880 --> 0:00:30.080 before I hand the show over to new hosts. But unfortunately, 0:00:30.600 --> 0:00:33.480 in the process of putting that show together, I had 0:00:33.840 --> 0:00:38.680 multiple no this is ironic technological failures that have set 0:00:38.760 --> 0:00:42.040 me back. So rather than go without an episode today, 0:00:42.400 --> 0:00:44.479 I thought one thing we could do is revisit an 0:00:44.479 --> 0:00:47.879 episode that published a couple of years ago about the 0:00:48.040 --> 0:00:53.120 Artemis program. This is the program at NASA that it 0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:57.440 aims to return astronauts to the surface of the Moon. 0:00:58.160 --> 0:01:03.560 Now that particular program has recently it's been announced that 0:01:03.680 --> 0:01:07.280 it's had some setbacks, some delays, not a big surprise. 0:01:07.319 --> 0:01:09.240 There have been a lot of issues going on with 0:01:09.400 --> 0:01:14.400 NASA and spacecraft in general, and so now the mission 0:01:14.440 --> 0:01:18.000 that would send astronauts to do a flyby of the Moon, 0:01:18.040 --> 0:01:20.680 they would pass behind the Moon and then come back 0:01:20.680 --> 0:01:23.839 to Earth. That is pushed back to twenty twenty six, 0:01:24.319 --> 0:01:28.560 and hopefully we would once again have astronauts on the 0:01:28.600 --> 0:01:32.560 Moon's surface by twenty twenty seven. Whether that happens or 0:01:32.600 --> 0:01:36.320 not remains to be seen, but I thought perhaps it 0:01:36.319 --> 0:01:40.039 would be a good idea to revisit this episode the 0:01:40.200 --> 0:01:46.680 Artemis program and kind of reflect on the mission itself, 0:01:46.720 --> 0:01:50.240 like why does the mission exist, what are its goals, 0:01:50.440 --> 0:01:54.880 and what potentially could we gain from this, keeping in 0:01:54.920 --> 0:01:59.760 mind that it's frequently impossible to predict what you could 0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:05.000 gain because these missions come with them certain massive challenges 0:02:05.080 --> 0:02:07.560 the engineers have to figure out how to solve, and 0:02:07.600 --> 0:02:10.720 in the process of solving those challenges, we can sometimes 0:02:10.880 --> 0:02:15.000 uncover the possibility for technologies that can benefit us in 0:02:15.080 --> 0:02:18.000 other ways, not just in order to survive on the 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:22.080 Moon's surface, but do other stuff. And so it's really impossible, 0:02:22.160 --> 0:02:26.160 I would argue, to anticipate what benefits we could see 0:02:26.200 --> 0:02:30.720 beyond just the mission accomplished section of these sorts of things, 0:02:30.919 --> 0:02:35.120 And in my mind, that's a great reason to pursue 0:02:35.680 --> 0:02:40.240 these really challenging goals. Now, should we pursue the challenging 0:02:40.280 --> 0:02:42.320 goal of going back to the Moon as opposed to 0:02:42.560 --> 0:02:46.840 some other challenging goal. That's a different discussion, one that 0:02:46.880 --> 0:02:50.400 I think is also worth having I don't think, you know, 0:02:50.440 --> 0:02:54.120 it's a zero sum game necessarily, but ultimately we do 0:02:54.240 --> 0:02:57.959 have to start prioritizing what we're focusing on, what we're 0:02:58.000 --> 0:03:02.919 dedicating resources to, and in the process we might come 0:03:02.919 --> 0:03:08.440 to the conclusion that one pursuit is more worthy than another. 0:03:08.800 --> 0:03:11.840 And we'll really see how that shakes out once the 0:03:11.880 --> 0:03:16.080 new administration takes power here in the United States, and 0:03:16.200 --> 0:03:20.200 whether or not we see a more aggressive approach toward 0:03:20.760 --> 0:03:23.960 space exploration. I would certainly expect that to happen, considering 0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:27.040 that Elon Musk, you know, he has a private space company, 0:03:27.360 --> 0:03:31.000 and he's real buddy buddy with the President elect. So 0:03:31.720 --> 0:03:33.880 if I had to wager, I would say that we'd 0:03:33.880 --> 0:03:38.160 see a lot more space stuff in twenty twenty five. 0:03:38.240 --> 0:03:41.840 But in the meantime, let's listen to this episode the 0:03:42.000 --> 0:03:45.280 Artemis Program, and I'll talk to you again really soon. 0:03:48.000 --> 0:03:52.800 Today we're going to talk about space and NASA's most 0:03:52.880 --> 0:03:57.480 recent program, intended to put American astronauts back on the 0:03:57.480 --> 0:04:00.840 Moon and eventually to go beyond the Moon. But first 0:04:01.160 --> 0:04:04.560 let's do a quick look back into the history of 0:04:04.680 --> 0:04:09.040 the space program. So back in the early nineteen sixties, 0:04:09.320 --> 0:04:13.320 the United States was in a fierce competition with the 0:04:13.320 --> 0:04:17.920 then Soviet Union. The Soviets had shocked Americans upon the 0:04:18.000 --> 0:04:21.200 launch of the satellite Sputnik that was the first man 0:04:21.240 --> 0:04:25.880 made object launched into orbit around the Earth. Sputnik didn't 0:04:25.920 --> 0:04:28.320 really do a whole lot other than send out a 0:04:28.320 --> 0:04:31.520 little beep of a radio signal as it traveled miles 0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:36.000 above the Earth's surface, but the implications of that launch 0:04:36.320 --> 0:04:40.440 were enormous. First, the fact that the Soviets could launch 0:04:40.520 --> 0:04:44.560 an object into orbit suggested that the USSR also had 0:04:44.600 --> 0:04:49.520 the capability of launching, say, you know, a missile somewhere else, 0:04:50.240 --> 0:04:54.200 like across the world at the United States. Coupled with 0:04:54.240 --> 0:04:58.640 a nuclear warhead. That was a chilling thought. The US 0:04:58.760 --> 0:05:02.719 and the USSR held a great deal of animosity for 0:05:02.839 --> 0:05:05.400 each other, which is putting it lightly, or at least 0:05:05.440 --> 0:05:09.160 the governments of those countries did, and each government supported 0:05:09.160 --> 0:05:13.120 an awful lot of propaganda aimed at vilifying the other side. 0:05:13.760 --> 0:05:15.880 As a child of the eighties, I remember a lot 0:05:15.880 --> 0:05:20.320 of sort of anti Soviet, anti Russian kind of messaging 0:05:20.400 --> 0:05:24.360 in pop culture and beyond well, anyway, the second part 0:05:24.360 --> 0:05:27.720 of this is that the world is a stage, as 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:31.400 Shakespeare once wrote, and on that stage, the Soviets were 0:05:31.400 --> 0:05:34.760 poised to take on the role of most technologically and 0:05:34.880 --> 0:05:39.240 scientifically advanced nation on the planet, and that was something 0:05:39.279 --> 0:05:42.159 that the US government wasn't too keen on either, and 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:44.919 so there was a very strong incentive to give the 0:05:45.080 --> 0:05:48.560 US space industry its own shot in the arm to 0:05:48.640 --> 0:05:53.040 catch up and then ultimately to pass the Soviet space program. 0:05:53.560 --> 0:05:57.520 The space race would showcase the best and worst of 0:05:57.640 --> 0:06:03.960 human traits. Among the best were ingenuity, problem solving, collaboration, exploration, 0:06:04.080 --> 0:06:08.760 and curiosity. Among the worst, you had pride, you had 0:06:08.800 --> 0:06:11.760 boasting not to mention the fact that the finish line 0:06:11.880 --> 0:06:15.799 kept getting pushed back whenever one side would achieve something notable, 0:06:16.240 --> 0:06:19.000 like you might say, oh, well, really, the real test 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:21.479 is to put the first person up in space, And 0:06:21.520 --> 0:06:25.080 then the Soviets did that, and the Americans said, well, really, 0:06:25.200 --> 0:06:30.080 the real test is docking two spacecraft in space together. 0:06:30.200 --> 0:06:32.880 And then the Americans did that, and the Soviets said, well, really, 0:06:32.960 --> 0:06:35.880 it's and so they kept pushing that back until finally 0:06:35.920 --> 0:06:39.640 it got to the real goal isn't to put something 0:06:39.680 --> 0:06:42.960 into orbit, but to get to the Moon, and that 0:06:43.080 --> 0:06:47.720 was viewed as the ultimate goal. The ultimate finish line. Now, 0:06:47.760 --> 0:06:49.920 I mean, for reals, a lot of the space race 0:06:50.000 --> 0:06:52.280 was really just about moving those goal posts so that 0:06:52.320 --> 0:06:56.360 one side could not easily declare victory and superiority over 0:06:56.400 --> 0:06:59.520 the other side. And yes, it is more than a 0:06:59.520 --> 0:07:02.640 little bit childish. It might remind you of kids playing 0:07:02.680 --> 0:07:04.880 a game where they keep changing the rules whenever it 0:07:04.920 --> 0:07:09.760 seems like they're losing. However, that childish desire is also 0:07:09.880 --> 0:07:14.320 what helped drive and perhaps more importantly, fund the actual 0:07:14.360 --> 0:07:16.680 engineering and science that would lead to some of the 0:07:16.720 --> 0:07:20.160 greatest achievements in human history. These are achievements that would 0:07:20.160 --> 0:07:23.760 spin off numerous beneficial technologies that we rely upon and 0:07:23.800 --> 0:07:28.360 benefit from today. Anyway, in nineteen sixty three, the US 0:07:28.520 --> 0:07:33.960 Space Agency NASA initiated a new program named Apollo, and 0:07:34.000 --> 0:07:36.280 this was an official response to a promise that had 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:40.880 been made in nineteen sixty one by US President John F. Kennedy. 0:07:41.240 --> 0:07:43.920 He announced a commitment to get astronauts to the Moon 0:07:44.160 --> 0:07:47.120 by the end of that decade. Now, in Greek mythology, 0:07:47.400 --> 0:07:50.600 Apollo is the son of Zeus. He's the god of 0:07:50.640 --> 0:07:55.000 the arts, of poetry and of the Sun. The Apollo 0:07:55.080 --> 0:07:59.400 missions saw several successful Moon landings, beginning with Apollo eleven 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:03.640 in July nineteen sixty nine and ending with Apollo seventeen 0:08:03.880 --> 0:08:07.880 in December nineteen seventy two. The program also had its 0:08:08.000 --> 0:08:12.400 share of tragedy. In nineteen sixty seven, three astronauts died 0:08:12.480 --> 0:08:15.120 in a pre flight test when a fire broke out 0:08:15.120 --> 0:08:18.440 in the cockpit of the command module. NASA would later 0:08:18.480 --> 0:08:22.000 designate this mission, originally known as Apollo two oh four 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:26.560 Apollo one, in an effort to honor the three astronauts 0:08:26.600 --> 0:08:30.560 who lost their lives in this accident. Apollo seventeen would 0:08:30.640 --> 0:08:33.440 mark the last time a human would set foot on 0:08:33.520 --> 0:08:36.160 the Moon, and that stands true up to the date 0:08:36.280 --> 0:08:39.520 of this recording. No human has been back to the 0:08:39.520 --> 0:08:43.720 Moon since December nineteen seventy two. And that's what brings 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:48.200 us to today's topic, because once again NASA and numerous 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:52.320 partnering companies and organizations are looking to send people back 0:08:52.400 --> 0:08:55.679 to the Moon's surface. This time, the goal is to 0:08:55.720 --> 0:08:59.880 include women astronauts in the project, something that just did 0:09:00.520 --> 0:09:04.239 happen back in the sixties and seventies. The new program 0:09:04.640 --> 0:09:09.480 is called Artemis. Now, like Apollo, the name Artemis comes 0:09:09.480 --> 0:09:13.240 to us from Greek mythology, she's actually Apollo's twin sister, 0:09:13.559 --> 0:09:16.120 which makes sense. This is sort of the twin sister 0:09:16.280 --> 0:09:20.079 project to Apollo. Now. Frankly, I would argue Artemis is 0:09:20.160 --> 0:09:23.520 much better suited as a name for this project because 0:09:23.559 --> 0:09:26.760 she's the goddess of the Moon. She's also the goddess 0:09:26.800 --> 0:09:30.080 of the wilderness and hunting and other stuff. The Greek 0:09:30.120 --> 0:09:34.440 gods were famous multitaskers. As goddess of the Moon, she 0:09:34.520 --> 0:09:36.800 does have the perfect name for the NASA endeavor to 0:09:36.800 --> 0:09:40.600 put people up there. She did not just spring into being, 0:09:40.960 --> 0:09:44.800 either in mythology or in the space project. In space terms, 0:09:45.080 --> 0:09:48.520 Artemis follows some earlier attempts to get astronauts back to 0:09:48.600 --> 0:09:51.280 the Moon. She's sort of the evolution of some earlier 0:09:51.400 --> 0:09:56.640 programs that have since been either canceled or just transformed. 0:09:56.960 --> 0:09:59.440 So this means we need to look at a span 0:09:59.559 --> 0:10:04.600 of time between the Apollo missions and the upcoming Artemis missions. 0:10:05.320 --> 0:10:08.480 In the first decade of the twenty first century, NASA 0:10:08.520 --> 0:10:13.319 announced a program called Constellation. The scope of Constellation was 0:10:13.480 --> 0:10:17.280 pretty darned big. It laid out the many advances NASA 0:10:17.400 --> 0:10:21.400 identified as being pivotal for the most extensive missions to 0:10:21.440 --> 0:10:24.880 the Moon and beyond. It called for the retirement of 0:10:24.920 --> 0:10:27.800 the Space Shuttle program. It was already on its way out. 0:10:28.160 --> 0:10:31.200 And so the reason for that was that the Space 0:10:31.200 --> 0:10:34.360 Shuttle program was limited in its ability. Really could only 0:10:34.360 --> 0:10:36.760 go into orbit. It can't go to the Moon or beyond. 0:10:37.480 --> 0:10:42.240 And also the Columbia disaster had brought up serious questions 0:10:42.320 --> 0:10:45.200 about the viability of the Space Shuttle program. In general, 0:10:45.240 --> 0:10:50.439 it was an aging fleet of spacecraft. So this particular 0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:54.040 Constellation program laid out requirements for a new type of 0:10:54.120 --> 0:10:59.120 spacecraft called Orion, also known as the Crew Exploration Vehicle, 0:10:59.360 --> 0:11:02.440 and it's similar to the old Apollo capsules, but it's 0:11:02.480 --> 0:11:07.040 actually larger and has a lot more features and could 0:11:07.080 --> 0:11:09.679 support a crew of astronauts on a mission to the 0:11:09.679 --> 0:11:13.040 Moon and back or extended trips to the International Space Station. 0:11:14.040 --> 0:11:16.680 I'll talk more about the Orion in detail a little 0:11:16.720 --> 0:11:20.840 bit later. So the Constellation program, in turn was a 0:11:20.880 --> 0:11:24.920 response to a call from the US President, George W. Bush, 0:11:24.960 --> 0:11:27.960 and he was asking NASA to really shoot for these goals. 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:32.640 He wanted something really aspirational and inspirational to kind of 0:11:32.679 --> 0:11:36.280 get people excited about this. Presidents tend to do this, 0:11:36.360 --> 0:11:39.840 by the way, when they need a kind of a 0:11:40.000 --> 0:11:43.640 boost in their own popularity. It's great that we benefit 0:11:43.679 --> 0:11:46.840 from it from a scientific perspective, but it does not 0:11:47.000 --> 0:11:52.960 always come from a genuine desire to push science. Sometimes 0:11:52.960 --> 0:11:55.920 that desire is more linked to the politics of the 0:11:55.960 --> 0:12:00.120 situation than the actual scientific goal of the situation. And 0:12:00.160 --> 0:12:03.280 in fact, there are plenty of people who argued that 0:12:04.240 --> 0:12:08.520 this whole approach was not the right thing for NASA 0:12:08.600 --> 0:12:11.720 to do, that putting people back on the Moon didn't 0:12:11.840 --> 0:12:16.000 really solve any big issues or didn't open up any 0:12:16.000 --> 0:12:18.840 other opportunities we had already been to the moon. People 0:12:18.880 --> 0:12:20.880 were arguing that maybe we wouldn't be able to learn 0:12:21.000 --> 0:12:24.360 anything new by going back to the Moon, that we 0:12:24.400 --> 0:12:30.200 should instead dedicate our efforts toward other things. But the 0:12:30.240 --> 0:12:32.000 Moon is one of those things that's easy to point 0:12:32.000 --> 0:12:34.840 at and say that is a big challenge, how do 0:12:34.920 --> 0:12:37.720 we get back there? And then you can worry about 0:12:37.760 --> 0:12:40.160 the other stuff later on down the line. I think 0:12:40.160 --> 0:12:42.160 that there is value going back to the moon. By 0:12:42.160 --> 0:12:44.760 the way, I don't want to dismiss it out of hand, 0:12:44.880 --> 0:12:48.520 but I can see the validity of arguments that state 0:12:48.960 --> 0:12:52.760 maybe we should look at other goals instead. Goals that 0:12:52.880 --> 0:12:58.480 might have a more obvious payout in either the benefits 0:12:58.520 --> 0:13:02.320 we get from technological advancement or the direct result of 0:13:02.360 --> 0:13:05.360 the missions themselves. So I could see both sides of 0:13:05.360 --> 0:13:09.120 both arguments, and so I haven't I guess I haven't 0:13:09.120 --> 0:13:11.000 really fully made up my mind of which side I 0:13:11.120 --> 0:13:18.240 really subscribed to anyway, So we get this deadline set 0:13:18.559 --> 0:13:22.080 for this idea of going back to the Moon. The vehicle, 0:13:22.559 --> 0:13:27.720 the Orion spacecraft, was supposed to be ready by twenty fourteen, 0:13:28.240 --> 0:13:30.960 and then you had the goal of actually getting people 0:13:31.000 --> 0:13:34.880 back on the Moon by twenty twenty. It is twenty twenty, 0:13:35.200 --> 0:13:38.440 and spoiler alert, that ain't gonna happen this year. NASA 0:13:38.480 --> 0:13:42.600 Administrator Michael Griffin unveiled this plan in two thousand and five, 0:13:42.960 --> 0:13:46.880 and that included a plan for two new rocket systems 0:13:47.160 --> 0:13:49.840 that would provide the umph needed to get the Orion 0:13:49.920 --> 0:13:52.600 spacecraft out into space on its way to the Moon 0:13:53.000 --> 0:13:56.439 or the International Space Station. And those rockets were the 0:13:56.480 --> 0:14:01.800 Ares one and the Ares five launch vehicles No. Two 0:14:01.840 --> 0:14:04.520 and three just one in five, and they were or four, 0:14:04.800 --> 0:14:07.560 I should say, but one in five were also meant 0:14:07.559 --> 0:14:10.200 to kind of mirror the Saturn one and Saturn five 0:14:10.280 --> 0:14:13.960 rockets that were used in previous NASA programs. ARES one 0:14:14.040 --> 0:14:16.560 was the smaller of the two rockets. That one was 0:14:16.600 --> 0:14:20.000 intended to launch payloads like the Orion spacecraft and its 0:14:20.080 --> 0:14:23.800 crew into orbit. The ARES five would be a heavy 0:14:23.880 --> 0:14:27.440 lifting rocket and it would be used to launch significance 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:31.840 amounts of a payload into space of cargo. So if 0:14:31.840 --> 0:14:35.280 you wanted to create, say a Moon station, you know, 0:14:35.320 --> 0:14:37.360 to actually build a station on the Moon, you would 0:14:37.520 --> 0:14:40.920 use a series of ARES five rockets to launch those 0:14:40.920 --> 0:14:44.240 payloads into space, and then presumably you would find a 0:14:44.240 --> 0:14:48.280 way of getting them to the Moon for construction. So 0:14:48.320 --> 0:14:52.240 it's not that different from models like SpaceX, where they 0:14:52.240 --> 0:14:56.200 have the Falcon nine rocket or launch vehicle that can 0:14:56.320 --> 0:15:00.520 send a capsule into space, or the Falcon nine heavy 0:15:01.000 --> 0:15:04.240 which is meant to push much heavier payloads into space. 0:15:04.640 --> 0:15:08.720 Developing the rockets would be another really big task on 0:15:08.800 --> 0:15:13.640 top of building this Orion spacecraft, But this was a 0:15:13.800 --> 0:15:17.600 thing that Griffin thought was necessary. Lunar missions are going 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:19.760 to require a lot of support systems in order to 0:15:19.760 --> 0:15:22.360 make sure the astronauts can get to the Moon, they 0:15:22.400 --> 0:15:24.600 can land there, they can operate on the Moon, and 0:15:24.640 --> 0:15:27.200 then they can return from the Moon safely back to Earth. 0:15:27.240 --> 0:15:30.680 That requires a lot of work. So, according to NASA estimates, 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:34.680 relying on older launch vehicles like the Delta or Atlas 0:15:34.760 --> 0:15:38.920 rockets would require many more launches to get the required 0:15:38.960 --> 0:15:43.040 equipment back into space. So that would drive up the 0:15:43.040 --> 0:15:46.360 cost of the program. And Griffin was saying, well, it's 0:15:46.400 --> 0:15:48.200 going to cost a huge amount of money to develop 0:15:48.280 --> 0:15:51.480 new rockets, but it will cost another huge amount of 0:15:51.480 --> 0:15:54.240 money if we rely on older rockets because we'll have 0:15:54.240 --> 0:15:56.960 to use more of them. And so he was weighing 0:15:56.960 --> 0:15:59.640 those two options and ultimately decided that it made more 0:15:59.680 --> 0:16:05.120 sense to push for brand new launch systems. Now, spoiler alert, 0:16:05.840 --> 0:16:08.480 this whole plan that was laid out in two thousand 0:16:08.480 --> 0:16:11.760 and five did not pan out, at least not as 0:16:11.880 --> 0:16:15.880 Constellation had laid it all out. We didn't have a 0:16:15.920 --> 0:16:19.200 spacecraft ready in time, nor are we ready to put 0:16:19.240 --> 0:16:22.080 anyone on the Moon this year. And one of the 0:16:22.120 --> 0:16:26.840 main contributors to the shortfall was down to budget. The 0:16:26.920 --> 0:16:30.520 original Apollo program had a budget of twenty five point 0:16:30.600 --> 0:16:35.680 eight billion dollars from nineteen sixty to nineteen seventy three. 0:16:36.000 --> 0:16:39.480 If we adjust that for inflation and look at it 0:16:39.520 --> 0:16:42.720 in today's money, that would come out to about two 0:16:42.840 --> 0:16:48.640 hundred sixty billion dollars, a truly princely sum. But that 0:16:48.800 --> 0:16:52.840 was across the entire lifespan of the Apollo program, not 0:16:53.320 --> 0:16:57.040 just one particular year. In nineteen sixty six, the peak 0:16:57.120 --> 0:17:00.920 year the Apollo program. From a vedgetary perspective, the agency 0:17:01.000 --> 0:17:05.399 spent the equivalent of forty seven point eight billion dollars 0:17:05.400 --> 0:17:09.639 in today's money, and that was just for the Apollo program. 0:17:10.000 --> 0:17:13.000 So the budget for all of NASA in two thousand 0:17:13.000 --> 0:17:15.919 and five, not just Constellation, but all the programs that 0:17:16.000 --> 0:17:21.600 NASA oversees was fifteen point six billion dollars. That's a 0:17:21.640 --> 0:17:23.800 lot less than forty seven point eight billion. Trust me, 0:17:23.840 --> 0:17:27.440 I ran the math. Even adjusted for inflation, that comes 0:17:27.440 --> 0:17:30.840 out to just under seventeen billion dollars. It is an 0:17:31.119 --> 0:17:36.520 enormous amount less than what was spent in nineteen sixty six, 0:17:36.640 --> 0:17:39.520 or the equivalent of what was spent in nineteen sixty six. 0:17:39.560 --> 0:17:44.440 And yet Griffin was describing Constellation as Apollo on steroids. 0:17:44.920 --> 0:17:46.879 So that got a lot of people asking, can you 0:17:46.960 --> 0:17:51.200 really design Apollo on steroids if you're using a budget 0:17:51.280 --> 0:17:55.280 that's less than half of what Apollos program spent in 0:17:55.359 --> 0:18:00.280 nineteen sixty six, So this was a question, and then 0:18:00.280 --> 0:18:02.480 a lot of people were asking, and ultimately the answer 0:18:02.560 --> 0:18:06.280 appears to be no, you can't really do it. So 0:18:06.320 --> 0:18:09.680 despite having access to less money, NASA still really tackled 0:18:09.680 --> 0:18:12.119 this challenge. I mean a lot of people poured a 0:18:12.280 --> 0:18:15.760 ton of work and effort into trying to make this happen. 0:18:16.080 --> 0:18:18.359 In two thousand and nine, the agency released a statement 0:18:18.400 --> 0:18:21.040 saying the Orion would not be ready for a twenty 0:18:21.160 --> 0:18:24.360 fourteen launch. They were hoping that they could maybe make 0:18:24.400 --> 0:18:30.359 it a twenty fifteen deadline. But here's the thing. While 0:18:31.240 --> 0:18:33.359 on the surface that says, oh, it's a delay of 0:18:33.440 --> 0:18:35.800 just one year, that's actually not that bad, especially when 0:18:35.800 --> 0:18:39.639 you consider the budgetary restraints, it actually was three years 0:18:39.680 --> 0:18:42.240 later than what Griffin had been hoping for. He had 0:18:42.240 --> 0:18:45.400 hoped to have the Orion ready for launch by twenty twelve, 0:18:46.000 --> 0:18:47.920 So now they were sure it wasn't going to be 0:18:47.960 --> 0:18:51.040 ready till at least twenty fifteen. The agency was really 0:18:51.080 --> 0:18:53.680 trying to narrow a gap that was going to exist 0:18:53.920 --> 0:18:57.639 when the space shuttles retired and the USA would no 0:18:57.720 --> 0:19:01.960 longer have a spacecraft capable of launching and docking with 0:19:02.080 --> 0:19:06.200 the newly finished International Space Station. So the ISS gets 0:19:06.240 --> 0:19:09.000 finished around twenty ten at the same time the space 0:19:09.000 --> 0:19:14.240 Shuttle program retires. Now the USA is reliant on other 0:19:14.440 --> 0:19:17.520 countries and their space program in order to get astronauts 0:19:17.520 --> 0:19:22.200 to and from the space station, typically Russia, so that's 0:19:22.680 --> 0:19:28.040 not ideal, and they were waiting on commercial space companies 0:19:28.080 --> 0:19:31.120 like SpaceX to catch up, but that just hadn't happened yet. 0:19:31.920 --> 0:19:35.160 So the real hope was that the Orion spacecraft could 0:19:35.160 --> 0:19:38.800 take over those duties and make USA independent of other 0:19:38.840 --> 0:19:44.520 countries and also of commercial spacecraft companies, where NASA would 0:19:44.520 --> 0:19:48.240 be owning and operating these vehicles. But that just wasn't 0:19:48.240 --> 0:19:50.320 going to happen. That gap was going to get wider 0:19:50.359 --> 0:19:54.480 and wider, not narrower. NASA did have a cost overrun 0:19:54.600 --> 0:19:58.600 of three point one billion dollars, though again this was 0:19:58.720 --> 0:20:00.639 much less than what the agents he spent during the 0:20:00.680 --> 0:20:04.679 Apollo program years. But that delay of the program and 0:20:04.760 --> 0:20:08.600 the twenty six percent overrun in costs gave Constellation a 0:20:08.600 --> 0:20:12.600 really bad reputation. That was a reputation that President Barack 0:20:12.640 --> 0:20:16.840 Obama actually referenced back in two thousand and eight NASA 0:20:17.440 --> 0:20:20.359 also predicted that the program would continue to cost more 0:20:20.680 --> 0:20:23.960 than had been originally projected, with an increase of about 0:20:24.160 --> 0:20:26.960 one hundred and forty percent of the original budget marked 0:20:26.960 --> 0:20:30.360 out for the years between twenty ten and twenty fourteen. 0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:33.600 Not great news. On top of that, the focus of 0:20:33.680 --> 0:20:38.760 NASA was almost entirely on the Orion spacecraft and the 0:20:38.840 --> 0:20:42.320 Areas one launch vehicle. Again no big surprise here. The 0:20:42.400 --> 0:20:45.720 idea of sending people to the Moon is generally one 0:20:45.760 --> 0:20:50.840 that people really get excited about, and excitement translates into 0:20:51.080 --> 0:20:56.119 governments approving bigger budgets because you know, representatives want to 0:20:56.800 --> 0:20:59.959 support the things that their constituents are really excited about. 0:21:00.320 --> 0:21:02.920 But that meant that the ARES five rocket, the heavy 0:21:03.000 --> 0:21:07.600 lifting rocket, had a much smaller development budget. All the 0:21:07.600 --> 0:21:13.520 focus was on the crude stuff. The Orion crew doesn't crewed, 0:21:14.080 --> 0:21:17.040 the Orion spacecraft, and the ARES one launch vehicle, not 0:21:17.160 --> 0:21:19.159 the ARES five, but the Areas five was going to 0:21:19.240 --> 0:21:20.800 need a lot of money. I mean, this was a 0:21:20.840 --> 0:21:24.760 heavy lifting rocket concept. But that meant that because it 0:21:24.800 --> 0:21:27.600 didn't get that big budget, the development was getting delayed 0:21:27.640 --> 0:21:29.400 over and over again, and that led to a point 0:21:29.440 --> 0:21:34.479 where analysts believe that based on the budgetary trajectory at NASA, 0:21:34.920 --> 0:21:37.720 the earliest the ARES five rocket would be able to 0:21:37.760 --> 0:21:41.280 launch the lunar landing hardware that would be necessary to 0:21:41.359 --> 0:21:44.800 actually land on the Moon would be sometime in the 0:21:44.920 --> 0:21:49.040 twenty thirties, if that were at all possible even then, 0:21:49.600 --> 0:21:53.000 so that would delay that deadline of landing on the 0:21:53.000 --> 0:21:56.720 Moon by more than a decade. The idea here was 0:21:56.760 --> 0:21:59.840 that the Space Agency would put a lunar landing space 0:22:00.440 --> 0:22:03.159 into Earth orbit, and it was to be called the 0:22:03.280 --> 0:22:07.040 Lunar Surface Access Module or el SAM. Later it was 0:22:07.200 --> 0:22:12.040 renamed the Altair and an ARIS five would launch this 0:22:12.200 --> 0:22:15.879 Altair into Earth orbit. Because it was heavier than the 0:22:15.920 --> 0:22:18.280 Orion spacecraft, so you wouldn't want to use like an 0:22:18.280 --> 0:22:20.840 ARES one rocket, you need the heavy lifting rocket. There 0:22:22.040 --> 0:22:26.320 a separate AREAS one rocket would launch an Orion spacecraft 0:22:26.680 --> 0:22:30.720 into Earth orbit, and then the Orion spacecraft would rendezvous 0:22:30.960 --> 0:22:34.240 with the orbiting Altair. The two would dock, and then 0:22:34.320 --> 0:22:36.359 together they would make the rest of the trip to 0:22:36.400 --> 0:22:40.400 the Moon. Upon entering lunar orbit, the two spacecraft could separate. 0:22:40.480 --> 0:22:43.440 The entire crew of the Orion could move over into 0:22:43.480 --> 0:22:45.680 the Altair Because the Orion would be automated and it 0:22:45.720 --> 0:22:48.280 would just remain in orbit around the Moon. Then the 0:22:48.280 --> 0:22:51.600 Altair would land on the Moon. The astronauts would go 0:22:51.600 --> 0:22:54.800 out and you know, do moon stuff. Then they would 0:22:54.800 --> 0:22:57.920 come back to the Altair, launch off the Moon, back 0:22:57.960 --> 0:23:01.720 into orbit, dock with the Orion, transferred back over to 0:23:01.760 --> 0:23:04.639 the Orion spacecraft, and then they could make the trip 0:23:04.720 --> 0:23:08.879 back to Earth. But because of these budget limitations, the 0:23:08.920 --> 0:23:11.800 focus on the Orion and the ares IE vehicles meant 0:23:11.800 --> 0:23:14.840 that all of this other stuff, the ARES five and 0:23:14.880 --> 0:23:18.720 the lunar module, all of that just remained hypothetical. It 0:23:18.760 --> 0:23:22.720 was a proposal, not an actual spacecraft. So while the 0:23:22.720 --> 0:23:25.680 agency might have produced an Orion spacecraft in time to 0:23:25.680 --> 0:23:28.439 get into space by twenty fifteen, there was just no 0:23:28.640 --> 0:23:30.960 hope of making enough progress to land on the Moon 0:23:31.080 --> 0:23:34.240 any earlier than the twenty thirties, and some people thought 0:23:34.240 --> 0:23:38.480 that even that was too ambitious. Meanwhile, NASA, the agency 0:23:38.880 --> 0:23:41.840 was struggling with budget constraints in general, not just for 0:23:41.920 --> 0:23:46.320 the Constellation program. Sometimes one project would have to siphon 0:23:46.440 --> 0:23:49.480 funds intended for a totally different project. You had a 0:23:49.480 --> 0:23:53.280 lot of internal battles in NASA as different project leads 0:23:53.320 --> 0:23:57.760 would kind of squirrel budgetary money away that was intended 0:23:57.800 --> 0:24:00.879 for some other project for their own. That did not 0:24:01.040 --> 0:24:03.680 help morale in the agency, And moreover, it was never 0:24:03.800 --> 0:24:05.960 enough to cover all the costs that were mounting up. 0:24:06.600 --> 0:24:09.760 In twenty ten, NASA received its new budget from the 0:24:09.840 --> 0:24:15.400 US government, and that budget listed zero for the Constellation project. 0:24:15.880 --> 0:24:17.880 I'll explain more in just a moment, but we'll take 0:24:17.920 --> 0:24:27.600 a quick break. So why did the US government pull 0:24:27.640 --> 0:24:30.760 the plug in twenty ten on the Constellation project? Well, 0:24:30.760 --> 0:24:33.520 it's actually pretty complicated to answer that, but it comes 0:24:33.560 --> 0:24:36.960 down to several factors. So, for one thing, the design 0:24:37.080 --> 0:24:40.359 specs or the various components in the Constellation project had 0:24:40.640 --> 0:24:43.280 changed over time. Some of them had changed a few 0:24:43.280 --> 0:24:46.320 times since two thousand and five. The team made various 0:24:46.359 --> 0:24:50.080 determinations that then led them down different paths, requiring NASA 0:24:50.119 --> 0:24:53.520 to invest more in new technologies and new designs and 0:24:53.600 --> 0:24:57.240 launch craft. And the initial plan would have seen using 0:24:57.840 --> 0:25:00.919 them using more components that already exist did right, that 0:25:00.960 --> 0:25:03.480 were already in production. But a lot of the decisions 0:25:03.520 --> 0:25:05.000