NASA’s Ignition Event Recap
When Jared Issacman took over as head of NASA he promised to bring transparency and focus to the agency. Ignition is him delivering on that promise.
The event took place over the course of several hours and spelled out five priorities:
Going Back To The Moon: Artemis, Architecture Updates
Building The Moon Base: Three Phases
Staying In Low Earth Orbit
Golden Age Of Science And Discovery
America Underway In Space On Nuclear Power
Going Back To The Moon: Artemis, Architecture Updates
Announced back in February, the Artemis program missions were restructured to include a LEO test mission to demonstrate hardware readiness. Akin to Apollo 9 and 10, the Artemis III mission will include docking Orion with HLS from commercial providers, test the xEMU lunar suits, and demonstrate increased launch cadence of the SLS rocket. Artemis IV will now be the crewed landing on the lunar surface in early 2028. Artemis V will be the first mission establishing a long term human lunar presence, landing in late 2028. Which leads to the next priority: Building the Moon Base.
Building The Moon Base: Three Phases
Starting now and continuing into 2027 NASA aims to start construction of a permanent lunar base located on the Moon’s south pole. This plan consists of three phases:
Phase 1 (Now–2029): Experiment, Learn
Phase 2 (2029–2032): Early Habitation
Phase 3 (2032 and beyond): Sustained Human Presence
Phase 1 kicks off robotic scouting missions to search and prepare a site for the crewed landing in 2028. This includes a dramatic increase in activity, up to 25 missions and 21 landings, two of those having crew aboard. Early power, navigation, and communications, and nuclear power infrastructure will be established. Finally science payloads that can be incorporated on “every lander and rover” per NASA.
Phase 2 further cements a human presence on the moon with early habitation for a semi-permanent stays. This includes improved power and coms infrastructure, upgraded rovers, more robotic scouts, and habitation modules for extended habitation. This will be achieved with up to 24 landings of medium to heavy cargo and crewed landers.
Phase 3 will scale up the lunar base to achieve true long term habitation. This phase will have routine crewed rotations, a large habitation complex for more comfortable stays, and build out a large complex logistics network with in situ resource gathering. This phase also includes pressurized rovers for more capability for science research.
With all of this focus on building a Lunar base NASA doesn’t want the public to forget it still remains committed to its presence closer to home.
Staying In Low Earth Orbit
For over 20 years the US and it’s international partners have dedicated countless hours and billions of dollars to our little home away from home. The International Space Station. The issue at hand is that the ISS is aging, it’s costs are ballooning, and there needs to be a replacement for it soon.
“For more than two decades, the space station has served as a world class orbital laboratory, enabling more than 4,000 research investigations, supporting more 5,000 researchers, and hosting visitors from 26 countries. The space station required 37 shuttle flights, 160 spacewalks, two decades, and more than $100 billion to design, develop, and build.” - NASA
The main obstacle to a replacement for the ISS is funding, and a lack of an established LEO economy. NASA continues to subsidize commercial activity to and on the ISS. Transitioning to a fully commercial orbital station will be a challenging task, but it is imperative that the US doesn’t surrender its current position in LEO, just as the Chinese are ramping up their own station.
NASA prefers to make this transition with commercial partners that dock newly developed modules to the forward port of the ISS in the late 2020s. This will allow for maturation of the new station and transfer of current ISS assets into the new modules. “This approach provides operational flexibility, ensures rigorous anomaly response during development, allows commercial capabilities to mature, and avoids risking a leadership gap” according to NASA. Starting with a Core Module that NASA procures, it will attach to the ISS it will supply “propulsion, refueling, power, cooling, docking ports, and basic life support.” Two more commercial modules will be attached and integrate with the Core Module, expanding operations. Eventually the ISS will detach entirely and be de-orbited into the Pacific Ocean (RIP).
Because this architecture is flexible NASA aims to drive demand for commercial operations in LEO, eventually becoming one of the many customers to the new station.
Golden Age Of Science And Discovery
The 4th priority communicated was NASAs continued dedication to science missions on Earth, and deep into the Solar System. These included but not limited to:
The James Webb Space Telescope - Currently in operation
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope - Launch slated for late 2026
NEO Surveyor - Launch in 2027
ESCAPADE - Currently on path to Mars
Dragonfly - Launching to Titan in 2028
ESA’s Rosalind Franklin Rover - Launching to Mars in 2028
DAVINCI - Tthe first in the 21st century set to explore Venus’s atmosphere
Habitable Worlds Observatory mission concept - Direct imaging of Earth-like planets to study their atmospheres.
Multiple Lunar Missions in concurrence with the Artemis Program - MoonFall Drones, LuSEE, VIPER, etc…
Multiple Mars Missions - Mars Telecom Network, Skyfall, and the technology demonstration nuclear mission (the next priority)
America Underway In Space On Nuclear Power
Yes. Space nukes.
This is where it gets good.
Why Nuclear? “Solar power works near Earth. It does not work everywhere America needs to go. On the Moon, solar power depends on where you stand — even the best polar sites face days of darkness, and the permanently shadowed craters where ice exists see no sunlight at all. Martian dust storms block sunlight for weeks. To sustain a presence on the Moon, send crews to Mars, and explore the outer solar system, the nation needs power that works everywhere, independent of the Sun. Nuclear fission is that power.” - NASA
In late 2028 NASA aims to launch a nuclear fission powered spacecraft to Mars, dubbed SR-1 Freedom. This would be the first nuclear reactor for propulsion craft launched by any country, ever. This pathfinder mission will lay the groundwork for nuclear reactors in spaces and usher in a new area of efficiency for spaceflight. Without nuclear propulsion rockets have rely on heavy chemical propellants that increase the mass of a rocket, thus decreasing its efficiency. With nuclear fission a vehicle can generate its own power for ion engines or superheat liquid hydrogen and eliminate the need for liquid oxidizers, reducing mass and thus increasing efficiency.
SR-1 Freedom will be launched into an Earth escape trajectory, then shortly after activate its fission reactor for a trip to Mars. Once arriving at the red planet it will deploy the Skyfall scientific payload: three Ingenuity-class helicopters that will be used to survey the surface for future human landings.
“SR-1 is the first step in a deliberate sequence. It will inform and enable Lunar Reactor-1 (LR-1), a fission surface-power system designed to keep the Moon Base operating through periods of darkness and in locations where solar power alone cannot reach. By flying a reactor first — without the added complexity of a lunar landing — SR-1 retires nuclear flight risk, stimulates and qualifies the supply chain, and builds the necessary workforce.” - NASA
NASA is going to put nukes in space to pave the way for energy generation that will enable human exploration into the deepest parts of our Solar System.
Conclusion
Without a clear direction or plan NASA has floundered in recent years. Isaacman’s fresh perspective and ability to lead the agency into the future will once again put NASA and US into the history books. With a clearly communicated path to the moon, a recommitting of it’s scientific goals, and a focus on expanding human presence throughout the solar system NASA has a directive to establish itself once again as THE premier space agency, leading the way in human and scientific exploration of the cosmos.
