#Space #NASA #BlueOrigin #Artemis
Blue Alchemist is a proposed end-to-end, scalable, autonomous, and commercial solution that produces solar cells from lunar regolith, which is the dust and crushed rock abundant on the surface of the Moon. Based on a process called molten regolith electrolysis, the breakthrough would bootstrap unlimited electricity and power transmission cables anywhere on the surface of the Moon.
NASA "... has awarded a $15 million Tipping Point initiative award to the Zeno Power-led team, including Intuitive Machines. The award is for the development of a Radioisotope Power System (RPS) that may enable lunar assets to survive and operate during the lunar night and in permanently shadowed regions of the Moon."
As a child of the space program, I admit I'm stupidly excited while I also recognize it's a path we've traveled. 🌚
@Cosmichomicide Apollo was a propaganda stunt -- put a man on the Moon by the end of the 1960s to show the world U.S. technology was superior to the USSR.
Artemis is to do it the right away -- establish a permanent human presence in lunar orbit (Gateway) and on the surface at the lunar south pole.
That experience will give us the knowledge to push out into deep space towards Mars.
This is the way it always should have been.
Ah, but the technology produced and the advances made during the space race made it more than just a stunt.
@Cosmichomicide That was the justification after-the-fact. The evidence is abundant that JFK did it for "prestige," including a recording of a November 1962 argument he had with James Webb. "I'm not that interested in space," he told Webb, who was asking for more money to do science. JFK told him man/moon was the objective, everything else was secondary.
Webb saw the economic potential, but JFK rarely mentioned it, public or private.
#Space #NASA #Artemis #Redwire
"Redwire Corporation ... has been selected for a $12.9 million NASA Tipping Point award to prototype a first-of-its-kind manufacturing technology intended to build critical infrastructure on the surface of the Moon, including landing pads, roads and foundations for habitats. This technology could enable robust construction on the lunar surface to advance human and robotic operations, paving the way for a sustainable human presence ..."
https://redwirespace.com/newsroom/pads-roads-and-other-forms-of-infrastructure-on-the-moon/