The landing on the moon in 2024 as part of the Artemis mission will have to be postponed by two years, since the US does not have spacesuits ready
Thus, the internal audit of the verification of the Artemis program established a number of rather serious delays in the development of its main components. The landing of the Americans on the moon, which was planned to take place in 2024, will have to be postponed due to the unavailability of spacesuits.
So on special suits for astronauts outside the ship, work has been going on since 2007 and will cost the customer 1 billion evergreen dollars.
What is the problem and how will it be solved
So, according to the presented report, about 420 million dollars have already been spent on the development of spacesuits, and at least 652 million more are needed. dollars and, despite the fact that a huge amount of time was allotted to the creation of new costumes, and even with a 12 month supply, there will still be ripped off. And that's why.
- The first reason is rather commonplace - it is insufficient funding, since recently the mission's budget was cut immediately by 28%.
- Second. In 2019, the dates for the landing of Americans on the moon were shifted by the decision of the president from 2028 to 2024. As a result, NASA had to dramatically speed up all preparation steps, resulting in high pressure on contractors and the introduction of errors through haste.
- In addition, the number of contractors has grown incredibly. So if earlier only a couple of contractors worked on spacesuits for NASA, now 27 structures are working on the project at once. And the need to coordinate actions between so many contractors is quite a challenge.
- Changing requirements also slow things down a lot. For example, initially there were requirements for the maximum weight of the suit of 186.6 kg, and then changed to 177.1 kg.
So it turns out that such ambitious plans for the triumphant return of the Americans to our satellite Moon can be significant are shifted in time, and competitors in the person of China, together with the Russian Federation, are not asleep and may well overtake the United States in a repeated race beyond the moon.
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