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Readers! A November fund-raising drive!

 

It is unfortunately time for another November fund-raising campaign to support my work here at Behind the Black. I really dislike doing these, but 2025 is so far turning out to be a very poor year for donations and subscriptions, the worst since 2020. I very much need your support for this webpage to survive.

 

And I think I provide real value. Fifteen years ago I said SLS was garbage and should be cancelled. Almost a decade ago I said Orion was a lie and a bad idea. As early as 1998, long before almost anyone else, I predicted in my first book, Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, that private enterprise and freedom would conquer the solar system, not government. Very early in the COVID panic and continuing throughout I noted that every policy put forth by the government (masks, social distancing, lockdowns, jab mandates) was wrong, misguided, and did more harm than good. In planetary science, while everyone else in the media still thinks Mars has no water, I have been reporting the real results from the orbiters now for more than five years, that Mars is in fact a planet largely covered with ice.

 

I could continue with numerous other examples. If you want to know what others will discover a decade hence, read what I write here at Behind the Black. And if you read my most recent book, Conscious Choice, you will find out what is going to happen in space in the next century.

 

 

This last claim might sound like hubris on my part, but I base it on my overall track record.

 

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Dynetics’ manned lunar lander requires multiple launches and in-space refueling

According to company officials, the manned lunar lander being developed by Dynetics — one of three under NASA contract — will require three quick ULA Vulcan launches and in-space refueling before it will be capable of landing humans on the Moon.

Dynetics’ proposed Human Landing System (HLS) depends upon fuel depots and multiple rocket launches to achieve NASA’s goal of landing two astronauts on the moon in 2024, officials said during a webinar earlier this week. “Our lander is unique in that we need lunar fueling to accomplish our mission. In the next couple years, we will take in-space cryogenic propellant refueling technologies from the lab to [technology readiness level] 10 and operational,” said Kathy Laurini, payloads and commercialization lead for Dynetics’ HLS program.

The lander would launch on one Vulcan rocket, with the next two launches bringing the additional fuel.

More details here.

While it is good that this design does not require the long delayed and likely not-ready SLS rocket, it appears to require in-space capabilities that will not be ready by 2024, the Trump administration’s target date for its manned lunar landing. Instead, this design seems more aimed at subsequent operations in later years.

Since Congress has not yet funded the 2024 mission, though both parties seem interested in later manned lunar operations, this design seems cleverly aimed at that reality, designed to encourage long term government funding.

Regardless, everything hangs on the November elections, and who ends up in charge, both in the White House and in Congress. We presently have really have no way of predicting what will happen, until we know those election results.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

9 comments

  • LocalFluff

    But it requires docking with a crewed Orion in Lunar orbit, that can only be launched on the SLS.

    Sure, it’s an architecture using what is supposed to be available to them. 1 SLS and 3 Vulcan launches, 4 dockings in Lunar orbit.

  • sippin_bourbon

    On one hand, in orbit re-fueling adds a new and daunting task, the way I see it, it is something we are going to have to tackle eventually, if we plan on moving beyond lunar orbit to Mars or The Belt.

    Or maybe even for the larger capacity landers if we are going to build permanent structures on the moon.

    It will be needed someday, now seems as good a time as ever.

    FWIW, the Trump Goal is 2024. If it slips to ’25 or ’26, I will not be upset. The fact is, under ANY other admin, it does not happen at all, on any time table.

  • Mike Borgelt

    They will be able to do the on orbit re-fueling because Musk will have shown them how in a couple of years.

  • Dick Eagleson

    And, given that the Dynetics lander uses methalox propellant, it should be possible to rig a suitable refueling apparatus that can use a Starship as a “milch cow.” That would eliminate at least one of those Vulcan launches.

  • Edward

    If launched on SLS it would be launched as a complete unit, but multiple Vulcan launches would be required if an SLS was not available for use. This was known back in May.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_t6pLNEXh18#t=264

  • mkent

    They will be able to do the on orbit re-fueling because Musk will have shown them how in a couple of years.

    Oh good grief!

    They will be able to do the on-orbit refueling because Boeing, who owns half of ULA, did it 13 years ago.

  • LocalFluff

    @Edward
    Vulcan will have the same capacity to LEO as Delta IV Heavy. Orion was test launched on Delta IV Heavy and it could not take it to Lunar orbit. Are they supposed to dock in LEO? I read here, and Scott Manley in your link says, that refueling will be made in Lunar orbit (possibly with the “Lunar Gateway”), and that requires a bigger launcher than Vulcan for the Orion.

  • pzatchok

    You could just dock fuel tanks to the structure instead of transferring the fuel from tank to tank.

  • Doug Booker

    Lunar Starship is looking better and better. Since they too will need in space refueling I’m sure they are already working on it and a Starship tanker.

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