After five failed attempts, SpaceX’s Super Heavy booster, carrying the Starship spacecraft led by Elon Musk, successfully landed safely on the launch pad on October 13, 2024. The booster was captured smoothly by the launch tower, marking a significant step towards Musk’s goal of building a fully reusable spacecraft and rocket launch system to facilitate the transportation of humans to the Moon, and eventually to Mars.
This successful test raises hopes for the Artemis project, aimed at returning humans to the Moon by 2026 and exploring unknown regions, particularly the South Pole, which is believed to hold water resources that could support life on the Moon. How can cooperation between the Artemis project and the Starship project contribute to the establishment of the first interplanetary space transportation system?
The Artemis Project:
NASA announced the Artemis project in May 2019 as the first step towards establishing a sustainable human presence on the Moon’s surface. The program intends to explore more of the Moon’s surface than ever before using innovative technologies. NASA has set the groundwork for partnerships with the private sector worldwide to maximize the exploration efforts, ultimately helping to establish a “base” that could be used in the future for sending humans to Mars.
NASA successfully launched the first Artemis mission in November 2022, serving as the inaugural flight of both the Space Launch System (SLS) and the Orion crew capsule that transports astronauts safely to the Moon and back to Earth.
NASA officials announced that the Artemis 2 mission to the Moon will be the first crewed flight under the project, carrying the Orion capsule with four astronauts, but that won’t happen until September 2025, with the mission lasting ten days in space.
The project includes the development of new spacecraft and landing technologies, as well as the creation of new spacesuit systems. This project supports the development of a lunar space station, the Lunar Gateway, which is part of the initiative to create the first lunar station that will orbit the Moon and function as a center for scientific experiments and a hub for assembling and launching missions to the Moon and Mars. This can be outlined as follows:
The Lunar Station: The Lunar Gateway space station is one of the key components of the Artemis program, especially as it is the first space station to orbit the Moon. This station, which will be built in collaboration with international and commercial partners, primarily the United Arab Emirates, will provide essential functions to support astronauts and enable them to perform their assigned missions effectively.
The project’s significance lies in the station serving as a launch point for space missions to the Moon and Mars, as it will offer a platform for assembly, refueling, and the launch of long-duration space flights, thereby enhancing mission stability and efficiency.
The presence of the station ensures the sustainability of astronauts’ missions around the Moon, enabling them to live efficiently for up to 90 days, allowing for more comprehensive exploration and experiments on the Moon’s surface.
With an operational period of 15 years, the station will be a sustainable support force for space exploration; its operational duration ensures ongoing research and development in the field of space missions and planetary exploration, while also facilitating the study of solar and cosmic radiation. Thus, the lunar station is a central hub within the Artemis program for lunar exploration and future missions to Mars.
The United Arab Emirates’ participation in the lunar space station project involves developing the pressure equalization module for the lunar station. This module, weighing 10 tons and measuring 10 meters in length and 4 meters in width, is a crucial part of the entire lunar station, which dimensions are 42 × 20 × 19 meters. Consequently, the UAE becomes the fifth partner responsible for developing the lunar station alongside the United States, Japan, Canada, and the European Union.
The development of the pressure equalization module consists of five essential phases, starting with the “planning” phase, where the project’s goals and strategies are defined, including selecting project partners and creating a prototype for the pressure equalization chamber. This is followed by the “design” phase, where detailed designs and specifications for the module’s components are developed. The third phase focuses on “qualification,” which includes the careful selection and qualification of the pressure equalization chamber components to ensure their quality and safety. Then, the fourth phase, “launch,” involves preparing for the launch of the space components and integrating them into the lunar space station. Finally, the “operation” phase will see the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre team managing the pressure equalization chamber’s operations, monitoring its functions, and ensuring its safety as an integral part of the station.
The United Arab Emirates will be responsible for operating the pressure equalization module for a period of up to 15 years, with the possibility of extension. This collaboration grants the UAE a permanent seat and a prominent role in the largest lunar and space exploration program, opening the door for it to be among the first countries to send an astronaut to the Moon, while also gaining priority access to the scientific and engineering data collected by the station, thus enhancing its knowledge journey and status in the global scientific community.
The Orion Capsule: In addition to the lunar station, the Orion spacecraft has been developed to transport astronauts from Earth to lunar orbit and back, and perhaps in the future to Mars. It is an essential part of the Artemis project and features capabilities to support crews for up to 21 days in space, with the capacity to remain in space for up to six months without refueling.
The Orion system consists of two main units: the service module, which provides power, propulsion, and thermal control, and the crew module, where astronauts reside. It is also equipped with advanced safety technologies for the crew in emergencies, including a launch abort system in case of any issues during takeoff.
The Space Launch System (SLS): Regarding the Space Launch System (SLS), NASA has developed a super-heavy rocket as the backbone of its deep space exploration program, including missions for the Artemis project to the Moon. The SLS boasts exceptional capability to transport astronauts and heavy payloads to orbits far from Earth. During its development phase, this system underwent a series of rigorous ground tests to ensure its efficiency and safety, as it will be responsible for launching the Orion capsule and crew into lunar orbit.
The Starship Project:
Starship is a program led by SpaceX aimed at building a fully reusable spacecraft capable of transporting humans and goods to space, including the Moon and Mars. This project is a key part of Musk’s vision of building “colonies for humans in space” and opening new horizons for humanity beyond Earth.
Starship was inaugurated in 2012 when Musk first announced the development of the reusable Falcon 9 rocket, intended to send humans to Mars, according to Musk’s vision, who initially named this project the Mars Colonial Transporter. As Musk’s ambition grew to reach beyond Mars, he changed the project’s name in 2016 to the Interplanetary Transport System. With the ongoing development of this rocket and the construction of a spacecraft capable of carrying it, Musk renamed the project for a third time in December 2018 to Starship, reflecting a broader goal that includes not just Mars, but also traveling to the Moon and other distant destinations.
The Starship spacecraft consists of two parts: the upper part of the system is a multi-purpose vehicle capable of carrying astronauts and cargo, while the second part is the Super Heavy booster, a massive rocket that propels Starship into space. Although the booster successfully returned and was reused, the first part of the spacecraft is still in development. Once Starship can travel and return successfully, it will be reusable; this means both the spacecraft and the booster can be recovered and reused for multiple flights, significantly reducing launch costs.
Collaborative Efforts:
There is no denying that Musk’s ambition to return to space has rekindled NASA’s enthusiasm for going back to the Moon, more than 55 years after Neil Armstrong’s landing on its surface. This led NASA to sign a cooperation agreement with SpaceX in December 2014 to collaborate on developing technologies enabling a return to space, including the necessary capabilities for space transport to Mars and back, such as deep-space communication, navigation techniques, and launch and landing technologies. NASA will provide SpaceX access to its extensive space resources, including technical expertise, lessons learned, and data.
Despite the different working methods of both parties, their goal is the same: to travel to deep space. This difference may spur mutual collaboration that will enable them to tackle the challenging mission. The Super Heavy rocket is designed for multiple reuses, potentially being reused more than once a day after the launch pad successfully recaptures it, unlike the SLS booster for Artemis, which is used once only; this means that NASA could use the Super Heavy rocket to supply the lunar space station multiple times, in addition to using it for other space travel purposes such as launching satellites or resupplying the International Space Station; this is the primary aim of the rocket, to achieve rapid reusability more than once, thereby reducing space travel expenses.
If the Artemis launch, supported by SpaceX technologies, succeeds, humans could land on the Moon again, successfully building the lunar space station; this could permit the establishment of a colony on the Moon, contributing not only to the exploration of the Moon and creating a primitive life on its surface, but also potentially serving as a new launch station for Mars, utilized by humans for deep space travel and returning to it.
Rather than launching spacecraft from Earth to deep space, they could be launched from the Moon, overcoming the challenges of exiting Earth’s atmosphere and the need to load the spacecraft with massive quantities of fuel that burn upon exiting the atmosphere, leaving little for reaching their destination. Thus, vehicles would be launched from the Moon’s surface, where the low gravity and extremely thin atmosphere allow rockets and spacecraft to exit easily, loaded with sufficient fuel to reach distant points in space before returning to the lunar surface, which becomes an interchange station for humans traveling from Earth to deep space.
The Super Heavy rocket may be the means of transportation in space, as Musk dreams of launching it from the lunar station or even from a future space base built on the Moon’s surface, embarking on a journey to Mars, carrying astronauts for the first time, or even further after its development, transporting humans and goods in deep space before returning them in a manner similar to the capture process before, marking the introduction of the first means of transportation in outer space.
