Talk:2909: Moon Landing Mission Profiles

Direct assent was a common method in many sci-fi movies. Including the classic From the Earth to the Moon Barmar (talk) 19:18, 20 March 2024 (UTC)

It feels like it needs an addition of more detail from the planned Artemis mission. In several ways it's going to be a "multiple rockets, assembled in orbit" plan (if not Earth orbit, then Lunar), with SLS and Orion scheduled to be cooperating with the Lunar-Starship launch (later, maybe, other independently craft)... which is itself almost a "one big rocket" solution, sticky-taped onto the plan. That's with or without the addition of the dedicated and semi-manned Lunar Gateway moon-orbiting element. I mean, most of the prototypical Apollo-era plans (DA, EOR, LSR and LOR) had their own crazy bits to them, and the full Artemis premise definitely seems crazy as well, if only because the LOR version got chosen for Apollo and pretty much got proven to work. (Or worked enough to even get 13 back home safely!) 172.70.85.254 21:04, 20 March 2024 (UTC)

Which mission profile will the artemis missions use? --162.158.202.135 06:58, 21 March 2024 (UTC)

From wikipedia:

Artemis 3 (2026) is planned to be the first crewed lunar landing. The mission depends on a support mission to place a Starship Human Landing System (HLS) in a near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO) of the Moon prior to the launch of SLS/Orion. After Starship HLS reaches NRHO, SLS/Orion will send the Orion spacecraft with a crew of four to rendezvous and dock with HLS. [...]

...so it's a kind of Lunar Orbit Rendezvous With Multiple Launches (not sure what its official name is, probably something as pithy as "Skycrane" was). Certainly not unambiguously any one of the main types considered for Apollo/in this comic. 172.69.194.225 09:17, 21 March 2024 (UTC)

I see Lunar Earth Rendezvous will be bad for Earth's climate, tides, stock markets and ecosystems. Has anyone considered the impact this will have on the trout population? 172.70.111.48 00:02, 21 March 2024 (UTC)

The choice of Lunar Orbit Rendezvous wasn't easy for the Apollo planners. Thanks to John Houbolt, the "voice in the wilderness" as he called himself, NASA finally adopted LOR rather than Direct Ascent or Earth Orbit Rendezvous they were planning in the early 60's. Remembering John Houbolt, NASA’s Voice in the Wilderness Orion205 (talk) 01:09, 21 March 2024 (UTC)

When you think about it, the complex (re)docking procedures for happen entirely beyond Earth orbit (for all Moon-bound missions). The uncovering of the LM and crew-connection made from the CM early in TLI, and the return of the ascent stage to rendezvous with the CM in lunar orbit.

How tempting must it have been to just have a single, 'uncomplicated' lander that doesn't rely on potentially awkward coordination well beyond any conceivably timely 'rescue shot' from Earth (LEO construction variations might realistically be still somewhat inaccesable, at the time, but there might yet still have been a chance to do something with a handy 1B sitting on a pad just in case.)

But it turned out Ok. Maybe better than Ok, as Aquarius (13's LM) was an important temporary 'lifeboat', whereas any single-craft-to-Moon solution with the same engineering failure might have left the crew with nowhere near as survivable a situation.

As Eleven's initial landing maybe showed (had to choose another landing spot from the one initially aimed for), the Lunar Surface Rendezvous seems to me the trickiest 'rendezvous' variation. At best, the preparatory 'reception lander' might have needed to have been sent again, when the first one encountered the bad landing zone (either landed badly or landed okish but revealed awful conditions to send the manned expedition). At worst, the manned craft lands but not realistically close enough to perform the intended fuel transfer, and very little that they can do about it by then.

So, looked at one way, it was a crazy decision. In another, it was just workable enough to avoid all the problems that the various other schemes had? 172.69.43.225 09:01, 21 March 2024 (UTC)

Randall's been thinking a lot about space recently. No complaints from me. MrCandela (talk) 02:08, 21 March 2024 (UTC)

He's probably playing KSP2 :D Elektrizikekswerk (talk) 08:35, 21 March 2024 (UTC)

Getting astronauts to the moon isn't hard. Getting them there (and back) in one piece is.141.101.98.76 10:18, 21 March 2024 (UTC)

Yes, Carl... ;) 172.69.194.81 13:04, 21 March 2024 (UTC)