At the end of August, NASA canceled the launch mission of "Artemis 1" on the grounds of engine failure. Just when the outside world believed that this failure would be resolved soon and the United States' moon landing plan, , was about to usher in major progress, NASA subsequently canceled its launch plan twice due to problems such as fuel leakage and sensor abnormalities. When all the above problems were resolved, NASA once again formulated a launch plan, setting the date at the end of September. However, to everyone's surprise, NASA delayed the launch this time due to weather reasons, which means that in just less than 30 days, the United States' moon landing program has encountered four delays.
Repeated setbacks have also led to the United States' moon landing plan being questioned by the outside world again. The reason for questioning is also very simple, that is, I clearly achieved an easy moon landing half a century ago, but why is it not possible now? In this regard, we can look at it from two aspects: one is the background of the times at that time, and the other is the background of the times at present. The first moon landing program in the United States began in 1961, but it was not until eight years later that they completed their first manned moon landing, so they were very prepared.
plus the United States suffered a lot of great losses in the aerospace competition with the Soviet Union. For example, the Soviet Union built the first artificial satellite, , and was the first to send astronauts out of the earth. So the Americans at that time had a determination to defeat the Soviet Union. With its strong national strength and this abnormal competitive mentality, the United States naturally achieved success, creating the glory that Americans have achieved in aerospace history.
But now it is different. For the current US government, how to maintain its own dominance in the world is much more important than landing on the moon. It is no exaggeration to say that if it weren't for China, Americans wouldn't have had a second plan to land on the moon. When the Chinese space people continued to make new achievements, NASA had to restart the manned moon landing program after half a century, and named the plan Artemis corresponding to the previous Apollo. This plan consists of 6 main parts, mainly super rockets, "Orion" manned spacecraft , ground exploration system, manned moon landing system as supplemented, and finally completed the "Gateway" lunar space station and Artemis base.
According to the blueprint drawn by the Americans, this is indeed a very grand plan. However, NASA is now stuck in the first step, and the reason for being stuck is that the Americans have abandoned their martial arts. Half a century ago, the Apollo manned lunar landing project used the "Saturn 5" large thrust launch vehicle, and the Soviet Union had not completed the manned lunar mission at that time. Therefore, since the successful launch of the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, the Saturn 5 rocket was eliminated, and various design drawings and production lines were sealed.
Although according to common sense, as long as there are design drawings, it is not a big problem to copy the Saturn 5 rocket. But the US government has not preserved such an important thing well. So if you say so, it is reasonable that the schedule for Americans' second moon landing plan has been repeatedly pushed back. (Three Earths)
