Sun Gf & Moon Gf ☀️🌙

Rainbow Rayleigh Moon. Rayleigh scattering is responsible for this phenomenon.

Honestly, funding Starship HLS was probably one of NASA's worst recent decisions. At least Blue Moon is also in development, too, or else there'd be good reason to worry about the entire Artemis Programme being cancelled.

It's genuinely possible that Starship HLS might not be ready before Blue Moon MK 2 is.

FROM OUTER SPACE

[ julia soboleva ]

Titan: Ligeia Mare and environs

Numerous lakes of hydrocarbons and seas are visible: at the top is the prominent body of liquid known as Ligeia Mare; the main centers are in the northernmost part of Kraken Mare and on the island of Mayda Insula; and in the bottom center is a portion of Punga Mare. In the lower right corner, Jingpo Lacus reveals a series of sinuous canals in its lake bed, while Bolsena Lacus appears in the lower left corner.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute/Ian Regan

Map of the Solar System from Signalis

Spectrum of overwhelm, now in triangle form due to popular demand

[Image description: A triangle chart titled, ‘Spectrum of Overwhelm.’ The three points are ‘404 Error,’ showing a person with an empty thought bubble; ‘wet beast,’ showing a person sweating and sobbing; and ‘rage beast’ showing a person clenching their fists in an outline of orange fire. The peak is the ‘404 error’ vertex, and the inside of the triangle here is coloured beige and labelled, ‘shutdown.’ The lower half is labelled ‘meltdown’ and is red on the rage beast side and blue on the wet beast side. \End description]

Discovery Approaches ISS by NASA on The Commons

Saturn (3200x1800, CG)

Taken with Space Engine 0.990.37.1720

Blue Moon really should go first. It's a more practical, less ambitious design, with better inherent safety. We shouldn't splash out on the towering ambitious megarocket just because we can. That stuff should come later, once we've gained confidence and experience. That should be obvious.

NASA does not need a lander with a dry mass of 100+ tonnes to put 2–8 astronauts on the Moon. The lander's excessive size and mass actually make several problems, such as the hatch being 30 m above the ground and there needing to be a crew elevator system with no current plan for a backup if it fails.

Big spaceship does not equal good spaceship. Don't be fooled by spectacle and awe. Starship HLS is ill-suited to taking humans to the surface of the Moon. The best case for it is as a heavy cargo vehicle, perhaps in service of a Moonbase. Again, that comes later. Skylab after Mercury-Redstone, not before.

It's genuinely possible that Starship HLS might not be ready before Blue Moon MK 2 is.