By 
May 26th, 2021
Credit: NASA
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a new report: NASA Lunar Programs: Significant Work Remains, Underscoring Challenges to Achieving Moon Landing in 2024.
NASA’s planned pace to develop a Human Landing System, says the GAO report, is months faster than other spaceflight programs, and a Moon lander is inherently more complex because it supports human spaceflight.
The GAO study focused in on the Gateway—which NASA is developing to be an outpost orbiting the Moon—in that it relies on power and propulsion technology that has never before been used, and contractor efforts to develop the technology are behind schedule.
NASA’s Lunar Gateway.
Credit: NASA/JSC
Knowledge gaps
“NASA’s lunar programs face cost, schedule, and technical risks that highlight how difficult it will be for NASA to achieve the ambitious 2024 lunar landing goal,” the report explains. “Specifically, NASA will need to address potential requirements gaps, technology development knowledge gaps, and a pending Artemis III mission decision that affects multiple programs.”
NASA’s Artemis program.
Credit: NASA
“Achieving a lunar landing in 2024 is an ambitious goal, and little is known about the overall cost of NASA’s efforts to do so,” the GAO report adds. “With just over 3 years remaining, NASA lacks insight into the cost and schedules of some of its largest lunar programs in part because some of its programs are in the early stage of development and therefore have not yet established cost and schedule estimates or baselines.
To take a look at this new GAO report, go to:
https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-21-330.pdf
A highlights document is available at:
Posted in Space News
