GoKawiilArs: You mentioned that getting out of a near-rectilinear halo orbit was a real benefit for each HLS provider in terms of delta-V. Could you maybe talk a little bit more about how finding a different orbit helps each of the companies?
Glaze: They both came up with kind of slightly different permutations on that. But they both came in and said going to NRHO requires a lot of extra fuel for them both to access the surface and then to get back to re-rendezvous with Orion. So they are looking for ways to reduce the amount of propellant that’s required. And you know, as I said in the talk, the lower they go the more it is a demand on Orion. So we’re looking to try and balance the demands on our systems to make sure that we have a solution that works for both. But there are a lot of benefits to some of the non-NRHO orbits.
Ars: I have a good sense of what some of those are. I don’t want to draw you out prematurely, but the space community is being asked to take a lot on faith here, right? Because you’re talking about a 2027 rendezvous with HLS in low-Earth orbit, and then at least one 2028 landing. We see what’s happening, or not, with Starship. That their next test flight has been pushed out to April or May, and they really had a lot of struggles last year. And Blue Moon Mk. 1 looks really cool, but it’s still in a vacuum chamber in Houston, about five minutes from where I live. What can you say to sort of give some comfort about the realism of these timelines?
Glaze: Yeah, I do recognize the challenges, and certainly as we’re thinking about trying to get to 2028 and the landing, a lot of the things we’re trying to do with the reduction in requirements is trying to make it less demanding on them so that they can have a lander that will work for 2028. The demo in Earth orbit, hopefully, really will drive down some of the requirements for those landers to let us test an earlier version of it that doesn’t require as much resources. I think the real confidence builder is that we’re closer to Earth. This is allowing us to do some of these things in a more benign environment here, closer to home.
Ars: When you say relaxing requirements, can you give me an example of what you mean?
Glaze: First and foremost, as we talked about, was the orbit, not requiring NRHO. But even on the surface, we have requirements for the communication systems between the crew and the lander itself, and the requirements on the types of additional utilization things that they need to bring with them. For example, how far the crew are going to get from the lander, and so what kind of other things do they need to bring with them if they’re going far out? All of that needs to be carried along. So there’s a variety of those kinds of things we’re looking at, how can we simplify and reduce the mass of things that need to be accommodated, and the integration of the various items that need to be accommodated. There’s a variety of those things, just the operations design. Are there ways we can simplify that helps them reduce their timeline?