09/14/2021 – Ephemeris – Lack of spacesuits just one of Artemis problems of getting humans back to the Moon

This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, September 14th. Today the Sun will be up for 12 hours and 33 minutes, setting at 7:54, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:21. The Moon, 1 day past first quarter, will set at 12:53 tomorrow morning.

The bright gibbous Moon is a feast for binoculars or a telescope. However, the speed-up plan to land crews on the Moon in 2024 proposed by the former President is not appearing to pan out. One major item is space suits, which must be more rugged and impervious to the Lunar regolith, or soil, whose grains are tiny, angular and sharp, and get into everything, and can destroy spacesuit joints. NASA has been working on them for 14 years, and by itself could cost a billion dollars. They might be ready by 2025. Besides delays to the SLS rocket, the contract with SpaceX to furnish a lunar lander is now tied up in litigation by one of the contract losers. NASA’s trying to land humans on the Moon on one half of one percent of the Federal budget, plus do everything else it does.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT – 4 hr). They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Prototype lunar spacesuit. xEMU stands for Exploration Extravehicular Activity Mobility Unit. Of course. This uncredited image is from slashgear.com in 2019, so I wouldn’t believe the date. These xEMU suits may eventually cost a billion dollars to develop and produce. Click on the image to enlarge it.