I am so beyond in love with this jacket! It's super warm and I cannot wait till it is cold enough to wear it. So very worth the long wait.

I have a Rise patch to go with... trying to decide where to put him!

OK, so this veers off a bit into an alternate universe, but addresses directly the problem of long term storability of methalox on the lunar surface or in orbit, by supposing a different propellent combination for lunar operations.

The most realistic possibility is to use the existing Starship methalox architecture to rendezvous with FLARE-type lunar polar orbit refueling depot, except instead of methalox, the depot has ethane and N2O, both easily storable in LLO. From there, the Starship could descend on a combination of methane and ethane engines. Most importantly, for many locations on the lunar surface, the ethane/N2O combination remains easily storable, which seems to be a criticism of methalox. Alternatively, a direct descent from LEO to the lunar surface could be made mostly on methalox power, switching over to ethane/N2O for the landing. Only enough ethane/N2O is stored to reach the propellant depot in LLO (plus margin) and return to earth would be powered by ethane/N2O. I see this as something that might be considered within the existing Artemis architecture.

Here's a napkin summary of this idea:
Opt 4 — Methalox direct to surface; storable ascent to LLO depot

Dry mass (t): 125.0 Mission end stNaRteH:O

# Leg Prop dV Isp (s) Payload(t) Refuel? Loiter (d) Boiloff rate Gross-up Mass end(t) Prop burned(t) Prop loaded(t) Mass at start(t) Refueled where

1 LEO -> lunar surface (direct) M 5,920 380 15.0 0 14 0.150% 1.0215 252.1 982.4 1,003.5 1,255.6 LEO

2 surface -> 86.5 polar LLO depot S 1,968 320 3.0 1 20 0.020% 1.0040 128.0 111.6 112.1 240.1 LEO

One key number is 1255.6t at the start in LEO, so it fits within a single Starship. The ethane/N2O of 112.1 tons (no reserve) fits roughly within the Starship (if not v3, v4) payload and is storable in LEO (-60C autologous pressurization), so this doesn't look implausible as a first draft.

But then there's the what if - as in, what if this were 2018 and we could reconsider what might have been. The notion of a tripropellant Starship suggests itself. Granted to get to this idea from where Starship is now is impossible, but the numbers are interesting.

So, let's assume methane is replaced with ethane as the primary propellant, together with LOx. Not impossible to imagine a Raptor derivative that could burn this. The LOx is burned 100% on the way to the lunar surface after which the landing and subsequent ascent are powered by ethane-N2O (oxygen-enriched to get the Isp up to 320). Interestingly, not only is a mission that returns to polar LLO for refuel before returning to Earth possible, but a mission that is _entirely fueled in LEO looks possible_ (though on the bubble). Hear are what those numbers look like (attached).

Because the propellants are now storable it makes options like keeping a backup Starship at a lunar base more plausible as well as keeping a refueling Starship in low lunar polar orbit, which could maybe double as a rescue station.

What do people think?

Hi my friend is a massive Christina Koch fan and since it's her birthday coming up I'm looking for something Christina related to give her. Does anyone know of any plushies, figurines etc that don't look really cheap that I can get her, preferably not a tshirt? Any help is appreciated :)

Edit: all I've found so far is some sloppily put together ai funkos that are defo a scam

I hope I captured some of the wonder and joy from the mission. All illustrations by yours truly. (No AI)

Sorry for the re-upload, I misspelled a name.

Monitoring program costs. NASA needs to improve transparency into Artemis program and mission costs. Artemis missions, which aim to return astronauts to the moon and eventually Mars, are composed of some of NASA’s most expensive and complex projects. We recommended that if NASA continued to fly the Space Launch System Block I beyond the first two missions, it should establish separate life-cycle cost and schedule baseline estimates for those efforts, to include funding for operations and sustainment, and report this information annually to Congress via the agency's budget submission. At the mission level, NASA has not taken steps to create a life-cycle cost estimate for the Artemis III mission, which was planned to be the program’s first lunar landing, as we recommended in December 2019. This is important as NASA plans for its mission to return U.S. astronauts to the surface of the moon in 2028. A life-cycle cost estimate would provide transparency into the cost of the programs necessary to execute the mission. Cost estimates provide management with critical cost-risk information to improve the control of resources as NASA plans to invest billions of dollars in the coming years to support human spaceflight and exploration. If the Artemis program experiences cost and schedule growth, it could have a cascading effect on NASA’s portfolio.

Copy from my other post, finally got my Rise (and Rocky). It was the opportunity of a lifetime to stream the Artemis II launch and get my first theater watch of Project Hail Mary (no trailers or spoilers beforehand) in the same night. I love all things space and sci-fi, but more importantly. It's so amazing to see humanity is still capable of making good stories and reaching for the stars. I'm grateful to all the people at NASA and on the PHM movie crew for doing these amazing things and giving us people on Earth a little bit of hope and some greatness to aspire to. Moon joy, Amaze amaze amaze.

Are any of the astronauts for crew 3 doing weekly crew updates the same way Reid did? I miss those videos, they were so fascinating to watch and the first time I can recall really getting to see that on a regular basis

NASA has plans to put a nuclear power plant on the moon by about 2030. Will that be necessary? Since Artemis will be landing on the high always sunlit areas, wouldn’t solar be the most likely first source of power. And maybe the future source too.

Nuclear will certainly be needed in the northern latitudes where the sun sets for days at a time.

Solar or nuclear or someday both?

Used the pin image and got rid of the background. I’ll have the office laminate it and the little guy can be in my classroom!!

my first tattoo ever. Had to be this one. I’m already a huge space nerd, and my first proper moon mission that i could actively sit and watch live.

De Gerlache crater sits at the lunar south pole, and it's one of the regions NASA has named as a candidate landing site for the first crewed Artemis Moon landing. I wanted to see what a crewed outpost there might actually look like, so I built it on the real terrain.

What's real: The ground is NASA LOLA elevation data at true scale (~5 m/px), and the lighting is path-traced at the correct low polar sun angles, which is why the shadows run so long and the crater floors stay dark. Those permanently shadowed regions are the whole reason the south pole matters. The cold traps in them may hold water ice.

What's concept: the Base itself. I assembled it from published lander designs (a Blue Origin Mk2-style cargo lander, a SpaceX HLS-style lander) plus a plausible habitat, power setup, and a small ISRU experiment by the landing pad. It's my interpretation of Artemis-era surface infrastructure at this site, not an official plan.

I'd like input from people who follow the program closely. What would you add, move, or do differently for a real south-pole outpost? Corrections on the siting or architecture welcome.

This is a solo project. I do 3D visualization work and wanted to ground a concept in real data instead of pure sci-fi.

You can explore the full scene in the browser here: https://farsidelab.com/concept/?id=moon-base

EDIT: Blue Origin's MK2 is a crewed lander, not a cargo lander as stated in the image title.

If Starship HLS lands large payloads, like rovers, how will the HLS be brought back to Earth for recovery to put in a new payload? Or will they just not reuse the uncrewed HLS, and if that’s the case, how are they disposed of? Or will Starship HLS just not have an uncrewed variant?

Why aren’t more people excited about Artemis?? Im mind blown that humans are going to become a multi world species. I have no idea why some people that know about Artemis aren’t as interested and invested in this 😭

For context, I was not into space at all before watching the Artemis 2 mission live on YouTube but it really made me interested. One night I just asked Claude theoretical questions for about 4 hours about the origin of species on earth, space, and so much more. I’m a software engineer and my dream is to work at NASA now

Stylized Artemis 2 Trajectory

Surprised I haven’t seen this posted yet but Artemis 3 Orion module stacked!

As NASA is planning to use the Centaur V to replace the ICPS, starting from Artemis V (Artemis IV will be using the ICPS originally designed for Artemis III), and there were different Block names for different SLS variants (Block 1, Block 1b, Block 2), before Block 1b and Block 2 were cancelled, do you think NASA will give a new Block name for the SLS with the Centaur V or will they stick with calling it Block 1?

I’ve been watching NASASpaceFlight, and during the cancellations, they always brought up how EUS wasn’t even close to ready, that all they had was an oxygen tank structural test article and nothing more. So I just want to make sure, is this true, or an exaggeration? And if it isn’t true, why did Boeing not release anything showing how far along EUS was to the public and Congress? Because based on what I’ve heard, the cancellation of EUS was a good decision, as EUS wasn’t going to be ready anywhere near in time.

All our love to Artemis and everyone who made it possible. Really enjoyed seeing them Monday at #redrocks

Engineer at 6:30 says that Blue Moon mission 1 is expected Q1 2027, rather than the previously announced late 2026 timeframe.

Colorado’s aerospace companies are the industry-leading innovators that are helping us get back to the moon. It was an honor to join the amazing Artemis II crew at Red Rocks and congratulate them on a historic achievement. As I told the astronauts backstage: “Sure, you’ve travelled to the moon and back, but now you can say you’ve played to a sold out audience at Red Rocks!

Full video of the event is online!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2JChADg1Ck