Mary-Louise Hoffman
Some industry executives have shared their thoughts on NASA’s mission to put U.S. astronauts on the lunar surface by 2024 through the Artemis program, ViaSatellite reported.
Peter McGrath, director of global sales and marketing at Boeing‘s space exploration business, said deploying large infrastructure with the use of a heavy-lift rocket may help the space agency and its industry partners address sustainability goals.
“The challenge for the moon program is the timing, landing astronauts on the moon in five years. It can be done, but that goal requires a lot of decisions to be made quickly,” McGrath told ViaSatellite.
He added that companies supporting the mission should develop communications technology platforms that are designed to work in deep space environments.
Robert Curbeam, vice president of business development at Northrop Grumman‘s space systems unit, told the publication he believes identifying technical concepts and approaches could help drive the program.
“The ability to land both humans and large masses on the lunar surface opens up endless possibilities for scientific exploration, and opens up markets through the industrial utilization of the moon,” Curbeam added.
Boeing and Northrop are among the 11 companies selected in May to produce human lander prototypes to support the agency’s lunar exploration initiative.
