so now that the crew dragon demo-2
mission was a huge success for the first
time we have witnessed SpaceX launching
astronauts into space for NASA however
we also know that NASA wants to return
to the moon and also build a moon base
the Artemis base Camp so how will spaceX and in particular starship help NASA
to achieve that goal and finally give us
our long-promised moon base well I'd
say let's find out
we know that NASA is currently working
on their Artemis program the next big
leap for mankind so to speak in order to
return to the moon and this time not
only as a show-off demonstration as in
the Apollo era but as a long-term
sustainable approach so the Artemis moon
program is supposed to be more cost
effective and has the end goal of
building a permanently inhabited lunar
outpost the so called Artemis base camp
by the way if you wonder why they didn't
build a Apollo moon base back then you
can check out our previous video link in
the description where we explained all
the details so now the big question is
of course what kind of role spaceX will
play in NASA's Artemis moon program just
recently SpaceX has helped NASA to get
back on track regarding human
spaceflight by restoring America's
capability of launching astronauts into
space from its own soil so SpaceX can
also help NASA with their Artemis
program right you are absolutely right
in fact we remember that not long ago on
the 27th of March NASA chose SpaceX to
resupply their artemis lunar
gateway with their new dragon cargo
spacecraft the dragon xl to be
launched by a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket
this was a big positive surprise to us
as it was a big step away from the old
lobbyist companies
such as Boeing Lockheed or Northrop
towards the most innovative and future
oriented space company out there in form
of SpaceX something we had always wished
for was beginning to materialize then
not long afterwards on the 30th of April
our amazement was increased even more when spaceX was awarded 150 million
dollars for the development of a moon
version of their starship as part of the
human landing system for NASA's Artemis
moon mission yeah sure Dynetics and the
lobby I mean the national team got more
money but then again we have to keep in
mind what a big step for NASA it is to
even award such a radical and
groundbreaking design a starship in the
first place we were blown away
despite SpaceX receiving the smallest
share and then as if all that wasn't
enough already
only a week later on the 6th of May NASA
announced that it would be launching the
first two modules of the lunar gateway
on a Falcon Heavy the amazement was
complete in a short span of only five
weeks NASA had basically shifted so much
towards spaceX and given them such a
huge boost of confidence by announcing
all these partnerships that this was at
least to us nothing short of a miracle
something we always hoped for to
materialize was indeed happening and we
probably have Doug Loverro
to thank for that in large part but now
we are of course asking ourselves what
comes next
how does the plan actually look well we
can start by taking a closer look at the
Artemis plan on this official NASA slide
here we can see it all starts with the
lunar gateway which will be launched in
2023 by spacex's Falcon Heavy in the
same year we will have a crewed moon
flyby with Artemis-2 and in 2024 the
first crewed moon landing will take
place with Artemis-3 now we
cannot answer the question whether this
landing will already take place
with starship or not this certainly
depends on how fast starship will be
progressing at Boca Chica
if starship progresses fast then yes we
might really see starship landing humans
on the moon for the first time since
1972 if the development of starship
turns out to take longer than expected
we will probably see the first humans
return to the moon in the lunar lander
of either the lobby I mean the National
aah you know what the lobby team the
lobby team so either in the lunar lander
of the lobby team or the one from
Dynetics we really hope that reason
will prevail and it will be Dynetics lunar lander but unfortunately there
are many political interests going on
and the lobby team consists of not only
Blue Origin but also Lockheed Draper and
Northrop so you know quite a few
companies with good lobbyists in
Congress and some senators for example
the Republican senator Shelby from
Alabama will certainly want to keep the
jobs in Huntsville because what a
surprise
all these companies have facilities in
Huntsville Alabama so we wouldn't be
surprised that the lobby team will build
the moon lander but we still hope for
Dynetics but of course we all could be
surprised and starship could make it in
time for 2024 but even if not we assume
that a cargo version of starship will be
ready at some time either in 2024 or
2025 at the latest human rating starship
for Artemis will of course be very
lengthy and we saw through how many
hurdles SpaceX had to go to launch
astronauts to the ISS and of course
launching astronauts to the moon is a
whole different game therefore getting
starship human-rated will take time so
it could really be that we will first
have a cargo starship and then a few
years later a human rated starship so in
2024 the first humans would land in
one of the two previously mentioned landers
these Landers would ascend again and
dock to the lunar gateway from the
Gateway several surface missions will be
conducted with a reusable or partially
reusable moon lander the lunar gateway
will be resupplied by dragon XL as we
said and it will get new modules and
grow over time these modules will
probably also be launched by Falcon
Heavy the astronauts will arrive at the
gateway with an Orion capsule which will
be launched by SLS this of course
reduces the efficiency of the whole
program but we assume that until
starship will be human rated NASA will
unfortunately use the SLS to bring their
astronauts to the Gateway so then we
assume by around 2026
the time will have arrived to build the
first Artemis Base camp but before that
we will have pressurized moon Rovers
delivered by a cargo starship cargo
starship missions might already start
around 2024 then afterwards we will have
the first habitat modules arriving
looking again at the official NASA
Artemis slide we can see a standard
tin-can habitat module called the
foundational surface habitat now we
assume that the real Artemis base camp
will look more like this animation by
the european space agency which is
covered by a thick layer of 3d printed
lunar regolith why well because if we
want our astronauts to have longer stay
times on the moon it will be highly
advisable to have protection against
solar and cosmic radiation the annual
radiation dosage equivalent on the moon
is around 400 millisievert sometimes a
bit more sometimes a bit less depending
on solar activity this is roughly 146
times more than on the surface of Earth
so yes radiation protection will be
absolutely important NASA knows that
very well therefore we assume that
starship will either bring along a few
expandable habitats and cover them with
lunar regolith or 3d print a regolith protection layer around a steel
habitat as in this proposal from the
European Space Agency here many cargo
missions with starship will be conducted
and remember that with each starship
landing over 100 metric tons of cargo
can be delivered to the surface of the
Moon so quite a lot of habitats and
pressurized Rovers
so using cargo starships the Artemis
Base camp can grow really fast since with
each landing multiple habitat modules
can be delivered simultaneously after
that we assume in the second half of the
2020s at the latest starship will
receive its human rating for NASA at
that point the Artemis lunar gateway
together with the SLS will completely
become obsolete suddenly huge amounts of
astronauts can simultaneously land on
the moon with each launch by 2030 with a
bit of luck we can already see around
100 people living on the moon of course
that sounds incredible now but once
starship becomes human rated it will be
a total Game Changer
Artemis Base camp which by the way will
be built near or at the Shackleton
crater at the lunar South Pole due to
the eternal sunshine and water ice there
will continue to grow with each starship
landing habitat module by habitat module
sooner or later we will see moon
resource mining and in situ resource
utilization we will see propellant
production for starship directly on the
moon because we can extract methane from
lunar regolith and use it to refuel
starship oxygen will of course be
extracted from water ice solar panels
and space rated nuclear generators will
provide power at some point after 2030
maybe the first rotational habitat will
be built inside Shackleton crater in
order to provide one G artificial
gravity for our future moon colonists of
course boring machines will be utilized
to dig the tunnels
also brought to the moon by cargo
starship this is an idea by dr. Joseph
Parker who has by the way now also
started a YouTube channel which we
seriously recommend you to check out of
course at some point new moon bases will
be built elsewhere although we assume
that this will take time since the lunar
South Pole really is the best spot we
can imagine however starships landing on
the far side of the moon and help
building Artemis camp 2 which will serve
as a station for radio astronomy
observations since on the far side there
is almost no radio interference from
Earth at some point then we might see
mass drivers be built to shoot up raw
materials into moon orbit in order to
build starship 2.0 s directly in lunar
orbit from metals mined on the moon
because from the moon those starships
could launch to Mars and beyond much
more easily because the gravity of the
Moon is only 1/6 that of Earth by that
time Artemis base camp will long have become
artemis city and starship would have
played a crucial role in order to enable
the transition from the small
foundational habitat shelter to artemis
base camp and finally to artemis city so
yes starship can definitely not only
help NASA build a moon base but help
NASA far beyond that help NASA to build
entire cities on the moon and open them
up at some point for civilians
so that living on the moon at some point
will become absolutely normal and it
will all start with the Artemis program
and starship and this beautiful
collaboration between NASA and SpaceX
starship with its hundred plus metric
ton payload capacity to the moon will
enable us to make the moon inhabited by
humanity and the moon will be the
stepping stone to other destinations in
the solar system once the lunar economy
is going so let's hope that the Artemis
program will really go forth as expected
and that it won't be canceled because
that would be a huge tragedy and
remember that the Chinese
would be very very happy to have the
moon all for themselves and we certainly
wouldn't want that to happen right so do
you think starship will really play a
big role in helping us to build our
first moon base or do you think Artemis
will get cancelled and thus starship
won't play a role and if you are more
interested in Mars than in the moon we
also made a video analyzing potential
joint missions to Mars between NASA and SpaceX you can watch the video right
here so then as always thanks for
watching the JS space report and I would
say on 2 the future
