Human Landing System (HLS)

Starship HLS Render (Credit:SpaceX)

Starship human landing system (HLS) is a part of the Artemis program being devloped by SpaceX. It will be used to transfer astronauts and cargo from the Lunar Orbital Gateway to the surface of the moon. SpaceX, Blue Origin and Dynetics applied for this with very different drafts. Although NASA wanted to downselect them to two systems for further development in order to achieve redundancy, SpaceX's modified Starship was selected as only module due to limited funding by the US-congress. However, BlueOrigin and Dynetics filed a protest against this decisision, which lead to Blue Origin receiving there own contract.

Currently a HLS nosecone mockup is located in the rocket garden at SpaceX and an elevator was recently tested by NASA. The nosecone mockup was re-purposed from S22's nosecone:

## 16 April 2021 - Selection

### Official NASA anouncement

NASA plans to put astronauts on the surface of the moon once again. It has selected SpaceX "to continue development of the first commercial human lander that will safely carry the next two American astronauts to the lunar surface".

While the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket will be used for launching four astronauts to the LOP-G aboard of the Orion spacecraft, the modified Starship will be used for carrying two astronauts from the Gateway to the surface of the moon, where they will spend approximately one week. Then they will board Starship again in order to transfer back to the Gateway, where they will change to Orion for their return trip to the earth.

According to the announcement, "The firm-fixed price, milestone-based contract total award value is $2.89 billion." This award has been made under the "Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP-2) Appendix H Broad Agency Announcement (BAA)".

The statement continues: "SpaceX has been working closely with NASA experts during the HLS base period of performance to inform its lander design and ensure it meets NASA’s performance requirements and human spaceflight standards. A key tenet for safe systems, these agreed-upon standards range from areas of engineering, safety, health, and medical technical areas."

Although only SpaceX has been selected (due to a lack of governmental funding), NASA still "intends to implement a competitive procurement for sustainable crewed lunar surface transportation services that will provide human access to the lunar surface using the Gateway on a regularly recurring basis beyond the initial crewed demonstration mission."

### Press conference

On the press conference the following points were made [according to Experimentalshells on LabPadre discord]:

* **Integration of Starship with SLS and Orion:** HLS (Starship) will go to the gateway, checks itself out and waits. Then, SLS carries Orion to the gateway. The astronauts will either transfer directly to the HLS or via the gateway. HLS will land on the moon, unload payload, perform science, and return to gateway, and return to dock with Orion. Orion will transport crew back to earth.
* **Is NASA sure that SpaceX will be ready in time?** As part of HLS, competitors must propose a comprehensive test plan for their vehicle. SpaceX will perform an uncrewed landing demonstration of Starship HLS before ferrying crew.
* **Why did NASA not select more than one HLS, when it did so for COTS and CCP?** **Why did NASA select SpaceX alone?** SpaceX was selected for representing the best value to NASA and Artemis. Also, resource constraints. NASA is still considering a future services contract.
* **Will crew be transferred via Gateway or will Orion transfer crew directly to Starship?** We will initially be docking with Orion (no Gateway) during the demonstration mission, but the "primary" route is through Gateway.
* **NET date?** By the end of the '20s. We're targeting 2024.
* **Would it be accurate that NASA could not afford Dynetics ALPACA or National Team ILS?** Each proposal was evaluated independently, via technical approach, cost, and management approach. SpaceX was the "best way forward". Additional landing services beside SpaceX are still under question, but will happen later.
* **Bill Nelson is a staunch supporter for SLS. If SpaceX is exercised, then SLS is less relevant. Will Nelson (who will become NASA admin next week) force a decision change?** We have no intentions or plans to change our plans for this program, or to re-evaluate our decision.
* **Is there more information about what Starship HLS looks like, as compared to (regular) Starship?** HLS had 27 functional and performance requirements for contractors like SpaceX to design, and then evaluated the proposals based on construction, design, safety, HHS, et cetera.
* **The Super Heavy will be the launch vehicle that carries Starship to the Gateway. Is there a more specific on when this mission will happen?** We're working toward 2024.
* **Is this contract dependent on a specific funding level for HLS? Is there an on-ramp for BO / Dynetics to compete for landing services procurement?** The services procurement will be a full-on independent procurement for cargo landing services. NASA is currently assembling the criteria for landing services.
* **Will the massive overcapability of Starship change the logistics situation around the Artemis architecture?** We'll be looking at different options, but we'll stick with our architecture. SpaceX Starship provides additional capabilites, and NASA will be evaluating plans for the next few months.
* **What will the uncrewed demonstration mission look like? Life support, elevator, cargo? Will the article for the uncrewed landing be used for the subsequent crewed landing?** Uncrewed demonstration will demonstrate a descent and landing test. NASA will continue evaluating which capabilites will be tested on the mission.
* **Will there be an option to expand Gateway for Starship? Will non-astronauts be able to fly to the Moon? Are you hiring more astronauts?** We are hiring more astronauts for Artemis. No plans on flying non-NASA-astronauts on Artemis right now though.
* **Will Starship use LC-39A or Starbase? Will SpaceX be able to "compete" against their own HLS and send humans to the Moon on their own volition?** The requirements were deliberately open and high-level only to accomodate a wide variety of bids. Starship will be allowed to launch from wherever they want.
* **Starship will be the first single-stage Moon lander. What do you see in Starship that it would land and take off safely, or is this something you are leaving to SpaceX for the uncrewed demonstration mission?** The solutions may look different and novel, but the NASA team thoroughly analyzes the proposals to ensure that they could be done. We are not concerned over this, but we will not launch until we are ready and the vehicle is proven to be safe.

### SpaceX announcment

Only 24 humans have been to the Moon, and no one has been back since 1972. Today, NASA announced they have selected Starship to land the first astronauts on the lunar surface since the Apollo program. We are humbled to help NASA usher in a new era of human space exploration.

Together, NASA and SpaceX have successfully executed similarly bold and innovative partnerships, including restoring America’s ability to launch astronauts to orbit and return them safely home. We will build upon our shared accomplishments, and leverage years of close technical collaboration to return to the Moon. In doing so, we will lay the groundwork for human exploration to Mars and beyond.

Sustaining a human presence on the Moon will require the safe and affordable transportation of crew and significant amounts of cargo. SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket represent an integrated and fully reusable launch, propellant delivery, rendezvous, and planetary lander system with robust capabilities and safety features uniquely designed to deliver these essential building blocks.

Flying between lunar orbit and the surface of the Moon, Starship will carry crew and all of the supplies, equipment, and science payloads needed for extensive surface exploration. Building off the safety and reliability of Dragon and Falcon, Starship will feature proven avionics, guidance and navigation systems, autonomous rendezvous, docking and precision landing capabilities, as well as thermal protection, and a spacious cabin with familiar displays and interfaces utilized on Dragon.

SpaceX is rapidly advancing Starship development, drawing on an extensive history of launch vehicle and engine development programs. Since January 2020, SpaceX has built 10 Starship prototypes, with production and fidelity accelerating on each build. SpaceX has manufactured and tested more than 60 of Starship’s Raptor engines, accumulating nearly 30,000 seconds of total test time over 567 engine starts, including on multiple Starship static fires and flight tests. We have conducted six suborbital flight tests, including two 150-m hops and four high-altitude flights. SpaceX has also built a full-size Super Heavy booster as part of a pathfinder effort, and currently has five vehicles in production.

We are honored to be a part of NASA’s Artemis Program to safely land the first woman and next man on the surface of the Moon, as the first of many, many more people to follow.

### Source Selection Statement

Three contractors performed research and development for HLS during the base period: Blue Origin Federation, LLC (Blue Origin or Blue), Dynetics, Inc. (Dynetics), and SpaceX. On November 16, 2020, the three companies received the solicitation and proposals were to be submitted in four volumes (Technical (I); Price (II); Management (III); and Attachments (IV)) until December 8, 2020.

After submission, the Source Evaluation Panel evaluated the proposals and reported the findings to the Source Selection Authority. The SSA decided on April 2, 2021, "that it would be in the Agency’s best interests to make an initial, conditional selection of SpaceX to enable the Contracting Officer (CO) to engage in post-selection price negotiations with this offeror."

The statement continues: "This decision was based on NASA’s longstanding Option A acquisition strategy of making two Option A contract awards. While it remains the Agency’s desire to preserve a competitive environment at this stage of the HLS Program, at the initial prices and milestone payment phasing proposed by each of the Option A offerors, NASA’s current fiscal year budget did not support even a single Option A award. Working in close coordination with the CO, it was therefore my determination that NASA should, as a first step, open price negotiations with the Option A offeror that is both very highly rated from a technical and management perspective and that also had, by a wide margin, the lowest initially-proposed price—SpaceX."

By April 7, 2021, SpaceX submitted a revised proposal, containing updated milestone payments that fits within NASA's current budget. However, SpaceX didn't reduce the overall price. Therefore, "it was evident to me that it would not be in the Agency’s best interests to select one or more of the remaining offerors for the purpose of engaging with them in price negotiations".

The three factors of evaluation: "Factor 1 is more important than Factor 2, and Factor 2 is more important than Factor 3. Factors 1 and 3, when combined, are significantly more important than Factor 2."

In summary, SpaceX's price of "$2,941,394,557 was the lowest among the offerors by a wide margin. Blue Origin’s Total Evaluated Price was significantly higher than this, followed by Dynetics’ Total Evaluated Price, which was significantly higher than Blue Origin’s."

## 23 August 2022 - LEAG

Artemis press release regarding Starship HLS from LEAG (Lunar Exploration Analysis Group):

At LEAG, NASA HLS program manager Lisa Watson-Morgan told refering to SpaceX's Starship HLS: "you could maybe get a feeling that their system is ready to go. And it's not yet. We're in design and development." According to Watson-Morgan, Starship is a fleet concept that starts with a *fuel depot* in Earth orbit that holds all the propellant. First launch the depot followed by "propellant aggregation" with tankers to fill it up. How many launches will that take? As many as needed. Watson-Morgan says the uncrewed demo flight is of a "skeleton" of Starship that is only required to land, not take off. "We want it to" but that's not a requirement. Requirement is to have a safe landing which could be at South Pole but don't want to disturb any sites of scientific interest. Asked on the Starship elevator, Watson-Morgan acknowledged that it was very tall, but that they have multiple ways to get insight and data from SpaceX. The elevator is multi-fault tolerant and they are testing it with crew.

Also, NASA is working with SpaceX to fly science payloads on the Starship uncrewed lunar landing demo flight. They also want to "take up and down as much as we can" on Artemis III, given Starship's large capacity.

## 11 March 2022 - Mission Plan Update

On 11 March 2022, the Artemis HLS mission plan was updated and new images were released; the depot Starship is shown to be 6 rings longer than regular tanker Starship (687m3 extra volume).

## 23 March 2022 - Additional Mission

On 23 March 2022, SpaceX announced that "NASA has selected Starship for an additional mission to the Moon with astronauts as part of the Artemis program". NASA press release

## 07 September 2022 - International Astronautical Conference

As part of the International Astronautical Conference, NASA has released a paper regarding HLS development. Mostly a good a overview of the program, the paper includes following key take aways:

* Raptor engine design evaluated for performance under lunar landing throttle profiles
* Aft docking mechanism designs matured; will be used for propellant transfer
* Testing an analysis of micro meteorid orbital debris (MMOD), TPS tiles and environmental control life support system (ECLSS), thermal control sytem, landing software, sensor system and software architecture continued

## 27 October - HLS chat with SpaceX and Blue Origin

Lisa Watson-Morgan, program manager for the Human Landing System program, moderated a fireside chat with Benji Reed, Sr. Director of Human Spaceflight Programs at SpaceX and John Couluris, Sr. VP of Lunar Transportation at Blue Origin. Key points of the article:

* SpaceX will be conducting a HLS docking test sometime this week aimed to simulate both docking with Orion and Gateway.
* Watson-Morgan (lead program manager of HLS) stated that she and her team are eager to see around 15 to 17 flights of Starship en route to the crewed Artemis III crewed landing mission.
* Watson also mentions Starship propellent transfer in orbit in 2024. Notably calling for more assets from SpaceX which have yet to debut (Supposedly alluding to the other unfinished launch platforms and commodities): "That’s where we’re going to get to see multiple launches from multiple pads go into orbit and transfer some amount of fuel between the two. And that will be a really key indicator as to their readiness level".
* SpaceX are working on smaller thruster systems for HLS.

## 17 November 2023 - NAC-HEO meeting

Lakiesha Hawkins gave an update about Artemis III HLS:

"SpaceX will use both Starbase and LC39A launch pads for Artemis III HLS. In the "high teens" of number of launches needed to aggregate fuel. Lander is about half way thru that sequence. Must do all in quick succession due to boil off issues."

## 30 November 2023 - GAO-study

On 30 November 2023, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a study titled "NASA Artemis Programs: Crewed Moon Landing Faces Multiple Challenges". These are the key points as cited from the study:

### Fast Facts

NASA is taking steps to return astronauts to the moon for the first time since 1972—in a mission called Artemis III.

NASA and its contractors made progress since our last report on the Artemis missions, but they are still facing challenges with developing the lunar lander and space suits. For example, some flight tests have been delayed, which could affect the timing of subsequent tests. And a significant amount of complex work remains. As a result, we found that the lunar landing mission is unlikely to occur in 2025 as planned.

In the course of our work, NASA stated it was reviewing the schedule for developing the lunar lander.

### Highlights

**What GAO Found**

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is preparing to land humans on the moon for the first time since 1972 in a mission known as Artemis III. Since GAO's September 2022 report (GAO-22-105323), NASA and its contractors have made progress, including completing several important milestones, but they still face multiple challenges with development of the human landing system and the space suits. As a result, GAO found that the Artemis III crewed lunar landing is unlikely to occur in 2025. In July 2023, NASA stated that it is reviewing the Human Landing System schedule.

The current challenges that GAO identified include:

* **An ambitious schedule:** The Human Landing System program is aiming to complete its development—from project start to launch—in 79 months, which is 13 months shorter than the average for NASA major projects. The complexity of human spaceflight suggests that it is unrealistic to expect the program to complete development more than a year faster than the average for NASA major projects, the majority of which are not human spaceflight projects. GAO found that if development took as long as the average for NASA major projects, the Artemis III mission would likely occur in early 2027.
* **Delays to key events:** As of September 2023, the Human Landing System program had delayed eight of 13 key events by at least 6 months. Two of these events have been delayed to 2025—the year the lander is planned to launch. The delays were caused in part by the Orbital Flight Test, which was intended to demonstrate certain features of the launch vehicle and lander configuration in flight. The test was delayed by 7 months to April 2023. It was then terminated early when the vehicle deviated from its expected trajectory and began to tumble. Subsequent tests rely on successful completion of a second Orbital Flight Test.
* **A large volume of remaining work:** SpaceX must complete a significant amount of complex technical work to support the Artemis III lunar landing mission, including developing the ability to store and transfer propellant while in orbit. A critical aspect of SpaceX's plan for landing astronauts on the moon for Artemis III is launching multiple tankers that will transfer propellant to a depot in space before transferring that propellant to the human landing system. NASA documentation states that SpaceX has made limited progress maturing the technologies needed to support this aspect of its plan.
* **Design challenges:** Axiom is leveraging many aspects of NASA's prior work to develop modernized space suits, but significant work remains to resolve design challenges. For example, NASA's original design did not provide the minimum amount of emergency life support needed for the Artemis III mission. As a result, Axiom representatives said they may redesign certain aspects of the space suit, which could delay its delivery for the mission.

NASA plans to take multiple steps to determine whether SpaceX's and Axiom's systems meet its mission needs and are safe for crew. For example, NASA developed a supplemental process—one not required by its policies—to determine whether the contractors' systems meet requirements before the mission. Also, NASA's contracting approach to acquire the human landing system and space suits as services included insight clauses in the SpaceX and Axiom contracts. Program officials stated these clauses ensure that NASA has visibility into broad aspects of the contractors' development work, including anything that could affect the Artemis III mission or crew safety. Officials stated that this visibility extends to certain aspects of work SpaceX and Axiom are doing for their commercial endeavors. For example, this included SpaceX's activities leading up to the Orbital Flight Test, which flew a commercial variant of the human landing system.

**Why GAO Did This Study**

NASA is returning humans to the moon to maintain U.S. leadership in space exploration and prepare for future missions to Mars. NASA is implementing the Artemis missions to meet these goals. To accomplish the Artemis III mission as planned by December 2025, NASA needs to develop, acquire, and integrate several new systems. These include a system to transport crew to and from the lunar surface, and space suits for lunar surface operations. NASA is using a relatively new approach to acquire the human landing system and space suits that is intended to increase innovation and improve affordability. To develop the lunar lander, NASA awarded a contract option to SpaceX in 2021. To develop Artemis space suits, it awarded a contract to Axiom Space in 2022.

A House report includes a provision for GAO to review NASA's lunar programs. This is GAO's fourth report examining the Artemis enterprise.

This report describes the extent to which NASA has made progress in developing key systems needed to land humans on the moon in 2025, and has processes in place to ensure that those systems will meet NASA's needs and be safe.

GAO assessed NASA data, documentation, and policy; analyzed contract documentation, contractor risk charts, and technology maturation plans; and interviewed NASA officials and industry representatives.

## 22 December 2023 - NASA

Recently, the HLS Starship sub-scale mockup elevator has been tested by NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Doug Wheelock.

## References

1. ↑ https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/as-artemis-moves-forward-nasa-picks-spacex-to-land-next-americans-on-moon
2. ↑ https://www.spacex.com/updates/starship-moon-announcement/index.html
3. ↑ https://www.lpi.usra.edu/leag/
4. ↑ https://twitter.com/SpcPlcyOnline/status/1562097850934300672
5. ↑ https://twitter.com/SpcPlcyOnline/status/1562109979003392000
6. ↑ https://twitter.com/SpcPlcyOnline/status/1562112377247653888
7. ↑ https://twitter.com/jeff\_foust/status/1562098062071398400
8. ↑ https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20220003725/downloads/22%203%207%20Kent%20IEEE%20paper.pdf
9. ↑ https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1506732905829056513
10. ↑ https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-provides-update-to-astronaut-moon-lander-plans-under-artemis
11. ↑ https:// ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/ 20220013431/downloads/HLS%20IAC\_Final.pdf
12. ↑ https://spaceflightnow.com/2023/10/27/on-time-artemis-landings-by-spacex-blue-origin-possible-but-face-great-challenges/
13. ↑ Marcia Smith https://twitter.com/SpcPlcyOnline/status/1725532267810836989
14. ↑ https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-24-106256
15. ↑ https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/nasa-astronauts-test-spacex-elevator-concept-for-artemis-lunar-lander