NASA’s Artemis 1 finally launches, questions of sustainability still floating around

by Thomas Kitchen, Opinion Editor

The following story was written by a student on the staff of The Jaguar Times as part of Hilliard Bradley High School’s Journalism Production course.

NASA’s Space launch system lifts off from Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center at 1:47 am ET carrying the Orion Spacecraft to the moon. Credits: NASA/Bill Ingalls.

In the early morning of November 16th, NASA finally launched the Space Launch System (SLS). The launch, beginning the Artemis 1 mission, which aims to test the Orion spacecraft in orbit around the Moon in preparation for future human missions to the Moon. While it was a sight to behold to see the most powerful rocket ever built launch to the moon while watching NASA’s livestream of the event, I couldn’t help but cringe at the same time. What some may not know is the launch of the SLS not only discarded a piece of space shuttle history into the ocean, it also cost over 4 billion dollars to launch leaving me wondering how much longer can the Artemis program be sustained.

Despite innovation in the space flight industry with SpaceX landing boosters on drone ships and Rocket Lab catching their boosters with a helicopter, NASA continues to go with fully expendable rockets. Though according to NASA this is to maximize the cargo it can bring to the moon.

NASA hopes to eventually be able to conduct an Artemis mission once every year, but if NASA can’t bring the cost down of the SLS, it is unlikely that congress will continue to fund the construction of SLS rockets. But some think the pros of the SLS outweigh the cost. Dylan Evans, a junior at Hilliard Bradley said, “I think that despite the cost to launch the SLS, what the Artemis program will give us in return in things like scientific discoveries, the cost doesn’t matter.” And I have to agree, but if Artemis is to be sustained and avoid cancellation like the Apollo Program and the Space Shuttle, the cost has to come down.

The private space industry can bring the cost down of going to the moon by a lot. The private industry brought the cost of going into orbit down. If you average the cost of the entire space shuttle program down to the number of missions the shuttle conducted, the cost comes to about 1.5 billion dollars per launch. Now SpaceX can send a Falcon 9 rocket into orbit for the cost of 67 million dollars. Elon Musk estimates that it will cost 10 million dollars to launch a SpaceX Starship when Starship is operational, and about 8 Starship launches to send the Lunar Variant to the Moon. This would bring the cost to go to the moon using the SpaceX Starship to about 80 million dollars. That is significantly less than the 4.1 billion to launch the SLS to the Moon.

But is the Artemis program even necessary? Should we just leave space exploration to the private sector? I don’t think so. The private space industry operates because of economic incentive. Bringing the cost to explore space is how these companies survive, but there isn’t much economic incentive in just science for the sake of doing science. That is why the Artemis program is crucial and we have to bring the cost of the program down. Mrs Ulring, a Science and astronomy teacher at Hilliard Bradley said “I think it’s important for NASA to be involved in Artemis but where the private space industry can step in and bring costs down they should.” I completely agree as I feel NASA should stick to doing the science but when it comes to actually putting things in space and sending things to the moon, the private industry should take control of that.

Although, with the Orion spacecraft currently making its way to the moon I can’t help but feel optimistic in the end. With the next generation of human space flight just a few short years away and with the innovation happening in the space flight industry everyday, I feel that everything will turn out alright and humanity will be walking on the moon again soon.