And Joslin takes it in the Men's Final!!

Chloe takes it for the Women's Final!

Under the #COTS model, #NASA provides funding and guidance to private companies to develop their own #spacecraft, #rockets, and #services, and then buys those at a "market" rate. #SpaceX, #BlueOrigin, #RocketLab and #ImpulseSpace could ferry cargo to #Mars and land there https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/05/if-congress-actually-cancels-the-sls-rocket-what-happens-next

The #Mars Sample Return mission will be achieved by #human missions to Mars. "Crew and cargo flights to the #ISS would be significantly reduced . The station’s reduced research capacity would be focused on efforts critical to the #Moon and Mars exploration programs." https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/05/white-house-budget-seeks-to-end-sls-orion-and-lunar-gateway-programs

May 02, 2025

• Increased commitment to human space exploration, introducing $1 billion in new investments for #Mars -focused programs.
• The #SLS rocket and #Orion capsule will be retired after #Artemis III. The budget also ends the #Gateway Program
• #ISS replacement in 2030

https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/president-trumps-fy26-budget-revitalizes-human-space-exploration

To get enough fuel into #orbit for a #Mars mission would require at least 10 launches of the #SLS rocket, or about $20 billion . Just for the fuel. To use traditional propulsion, one needs to push the boundaries of #reuse and heavy lift rockets to extreme limits—which is precisely what #SpaceX is trying to do with its fully reusable launch system https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/02/report-nasas-only-realistic-path-for-humans-on-mars-is-nuclear-propulsion

#Isaacman said #NASA’s current architecture for the #Artemis lunar plans, based on the #SLS rocket and #Orion spacecraft, is probably not the ideal “long-term” solution to NASA’s deep space transportation plans https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/04/isaacman-sls-and-orion-are-not-a-long-term-solution-for-nasa

The #SLS project is about $6 billion over budget and six years behind schedule , according to a #government audit, with reports suggesting it is “50-50” whether Mr Trump scraps the programme. In a city where around 10 per cent of the 225,000 population work for the government, there is concern among residents that they could be in the eye of the #Doge storm https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2025/04/06/alabama-rocket-city-heart-us-space-travel-musk-doge-demise

"ICPS-2: ULA-built upper stage for Artemis II delivered to NASA" by United Launch Alliance ULA - #ULA delivered the upper stage rocket to #NASA for stacking on the #SLS rocket for #Artemis2. https://blog.ulalaunch.com/blog/icps-2-ula-built-upper-stage-for-artemis-ii-delivered-to-nasa #Artemis #NASA #Moon

Jared #Isaacman, the nominee to lead #NASA, appears to be on the #Mars train https://www.independent.co.uk/space/trump-moon-musk-occupy-mars-b2701028.html

#SpaceX has developed two heavy lift rockets in the last decade, and #BlueOrigin just launched #NewGlenn. Each of these rockets is at least partially reusable and flies at less than one-tenth the cost of the #SLS rocket https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/02/boeing-has-informed-its-employees-that-nasa-may-cancel-sls-contracts

Prof Logsdon* expects big changes under #Trump, Mr #Musk and Mr #Isaacman: scrapping programmes, closing NASA centres and more contracting out to #SpaceX, #BlueOrigin and other private sector firms. "There is a delicate balance between the interests of #NASA, #Congress and the #WhiteHouse."

Mr Isaacman has called the #SLS "outrageously expensive" and said that the major aerospace contractors are "incentivised to be economically #inefficient". https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn93797z2dpo

* https://www.planetary.org/profiles/jon-logsdon

The incoming Trump administration will certainly keep #NASA's goal of landing people on the Moon, but without the budgetary burden of the #SLS rocket. https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/12/trumps-nominee-to-lead-nasa-favors-a-full-embrace-of-commercial-space

It is not easy to turn a big #bureaucracy, and there will undoubtedly be friction and pain points. But the opportunity here is enticing: #NASA should not be competing with things that private industry is already doing better, such as launching big rockets. Rather, it should find difficult research and development projects at the edge of the possible. https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/12/how-did-the-ceo-of-an-online-payments-firm-become-the-nominee-to-lead-nasa