…has just been awarded a contract to supply the Gateway (assuming the Gateway ever actually exists).
6 thoughts on “SpaceX”
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…has just been awarded a contract to supply the Gateway (assuming the Gateway ever actually exists).
Comments are closed.
“It will be of utmost importance to NASA that SpaceX fulfill it’s commitment to the Gateway and not get sidetracked on other projects.”
“But sir, isn’t the Gateway no longer an active project?”
“That’s irrelevant”
SpaceX should put one up pro bono with Starship so it can be paid to deliver stuff to it. The Gateway itself could be a Starship if that’s easier.
Starship already loaded with cargo. Just swap it out every two years.
And given the current rate of progress on Artemis the unused cargo can just be recycled and used on the next Gateway resupply mission.
Ad astra per infinita opus!
I like Gateway because it’s dirigible. That is, it can relocate anywhere in near-earth space using its ion engines, and be crewed when it gets somewhere. It could be used to work on things like space telescopes in EM L2 and even SE L1 and L2.
Dragon XL enhances this, and since it has a powered grapple fixture and docking collar, it can borrow the Canadarm and even the airlock (with some mods) to make crewed free-flying missions. You could mount nother docking port on the distal end, or even a berthing port, if needed.
I’ve always looked at this as Plan B if Starship doesn’t work out. Or Plan B.2 if Artemis fails too. You could do a decent lunar explortion program with just Dragons, Gateway, and Falcon Heavy, with surface landings of crewed rovers and excursions to some NEOs. Those are all things that already exist, or are an easy development path away. If Blue ever starts flying, that’ll make it easier.
You’d have thought that NASA would work hard towards doing Gateway first to get to this potential rather than sidelining it, even if the Artemis lander never gets built. Thus even *when* SpaceX lands a Starliner on the moon, the Gateway might still be doing something useful in cis-lunar space, perhaps eventually leading to a dockable re-fueling station or as you point out useful science missions.
Heck I *still* think an exploration vehicle crewed or otherwise to check out the environments of the stable L4 and L5 Lagrange points would be useful. We don’t really know much about them. Perhaps we’d find out they are debris filled? Maybe that debris could be used for raw materials? A gateway type explorer would be nice to have. But then there is the idea of Starship one size fits all missions. ?