China publicly discloses plan for a lunar landing within three years(arstechnica.com)

4 pointsby rbanffy6 hours ago1 comment

Tryvrsakjo106 hours ago
Yeah I've recently seen this story on another news outlet this is good for humanity we haven't had one of these in 6 decades. It will also put more pressure on NASA to get some of their astronauts to the moon, though I think Elon might make get astronauts to the moon earlier than 2030.
- rbanffy5 hours ago
  > though I think Elon might make get astronauts to the moon earlier than 2030.
  If we are talking about Starship, this would require SpaceX demonstrating:
  - A crew compartment for Starship
  - Starship landing and taking off from the Moon
  - An elevator to take them to/from the surface
  - A tanker
  - A LEO fuel depot
  - Reliable in-orbit fuel transfer (more than 10 needed for Lunar Starship
  This is assuming a plan using an orbit current SLS/Orion can reach. If that's not possible, NASA also needs a higher energy service module that can place Orion on a circular lunar orbit.
  There are only 4 years until 2030. There is absolutely no way the US can do that by 2030.
  - Tryvrsakjo102 hours ago
    Why not do it in 4 years I mean they managed to do it 60 years ago, there are fewer constraints now than back then especially with how much technology has advanced perhaps a partnership is NASA would make it possible they could amalgamate their resources.