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SpaceX to Take Over for NASA SLS · Elon Musk Podcast

• 0:00
  Hey everybody checking back to the Elon Musk podcast.
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  This is a show where we discuss the critical crossroads, the
• 0:06
  shape, SpaceX, Tesla X, The Boring Company and Neuralink.
• 0:10
  And I'm your host Will Walden. One more thing before we start,
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  app off of Android. And I want to let you know where
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  to continue finding the show over at YouTube Music, search
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  for Elon Musk podcast. On today's episode, we're going
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  to be talking about Spacex's HLS mission to the moon, NASA's
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  Orion spacecraft, and how things may completely change for the
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  Artemis missions going forward. Now, originally, NASA wanted
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  SpaceX to launch the lunar HLS Starship to moon orbit, where it
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  would dock with the Orion spacecraft and the HLS ship
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  would take the astronauts down to the surface of the moon.
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  Now, something drastic may be changing in the near future.
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  There's been murmurings that behind closed doors, NASA is
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  discussing a low Earth orbit transfer of astronauts between
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  the Orion spacecraft and the Starship HLS.
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  Now, these are unconfirmed right now.
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  They haven't released anything about this yet.
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  But Ars Technica posted an article about it.
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  And Eric Berger is very reputable and he was the one
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  that posted this article. What may be happening with the
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  Starship in the Orion? So let's just wind it in a
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  little bit because we have to understand what the process is
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  of getting the HLS Starship to the moon first.
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  OK? So first they have to launch a
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  fuel depot or a fuel fuel, a few fuel depots for the actual
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  Starship to fuel up in low Earth orbit before it gets to the
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  moon, before it launches to the moon.
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  In NASA, it said somewhere around 10:00-ish.
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  In SpaceX, Elon Musk said somewhere around 10 to 15.
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  So we're going to go on the low side.
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  We're going to say about 10 depots will be launched to low
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  Earth orbit, where the HLS Starship will dock with them and
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  fuel up before it goes to the moon.
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  Then the HLS will be fueled up and possibly in between the fuel
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  and going to the moon. Like that step right there.
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  Astronauts will fly on an SLS rocket to low Earth orbit and
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  then dock with the Starship. Now, we're not sure if this is
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  even feasible right now. We know that this is going to be
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  a thing in the future, but there are some caveats to this that
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  could make this a more impressive mission and also
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  could save NASA billions of dollars in the future.
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  You're asking yourself, why do they need the SLS rocket if it's
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  not going all the way to the moon?
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  That's what I'm asking myself too.
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  If the Orion capsule could be retrofitted to be on top of a
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  Starship or on top of a Dragon or Falcon 9 instead of a Dragon
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  capsule. That's a possibility.
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  But you're also probably thinking, why don't they just
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  use a Dragon capsule and dock that with a Starship?
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  Because Dragon capsules already go to low Earth orbit and they
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  can dock with the International Space Station.
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  So that seems like the logical next step, right?
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  Not quite yet. So there will be a possible
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  mission with the Orion spacecraft and the HLS Starship?
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  Because they need to test this out to see if the Orion can
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  actually dock with the Starship while in space.
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  Because that's what they're gonna be doing in the Moon's
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  orbit. And the Dragon capsule cannot go
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  to the moon and dock with the Starship and come back to Earth.
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  It just isn't feasible. It doesn't work like that.
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  The physics don't work. The Dragon capsule is not built
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  for that. So they need to use the Orion
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  capsule or some other capsule that could be created in the
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  future for docking with the Starship and then coming back to
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  Earth. So once the astronauts are on
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  board the Starship, then three or more astronauts would fly
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  their way to the Moon's orbit, where they would land on the
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  Moon's surface. And then when they're done with
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  their science and experimentation on a lunar
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  surface, they would fly back up and dock with the Orion capsule
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  or the moon station, transfer the astronauts again, and then
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  from the Orion they would come back down to Earth.
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  The HLS rocket would stay either in the lunar orbit or docked
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  with the moon station until the next mission and possibly just
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  land on the moon and wait for another HLS rocket to come up
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  because there's a limited shelf life for these things while
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  they're in space and orbiting in the moon.
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  So could land it on the moon and it could become a habitat for
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  future astronauts. Now, the good thing about going
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  to the moon in the HLS is that you're not cramped like the
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  Orion spacecraft. The Orion spacecraft, even
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  though it is a modern marvel of engineering, there's not a lot
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  of room. You can't really move around a
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  lot. You can't really do much and you
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  can't really stretch a lot. There's no there's no room for
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  activities there with the HLS Starship.
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  It's 9 meters around, 30 feet around.
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  It's a massive ship. And if they can construct this
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  so the astronauts could just fly all the way to the moon on the
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  HLS rocket, seems like it's totally doable, then they could
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  land the Starship with the astronauts on board and it would
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  be a much better experience for the astronauts.
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  They could have more experimentation time because the
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  HLS rocket could have more room for experiments and it's a low
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  Earth orbit experimentation while they're waiting.
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  Or they could do experimentation all the way to the moon and
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  while they get to the moon, while they orbit the moon and
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  when they land on the moon. So the experimentation time and
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  the experimentation mass of experimentation could be much
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  bigger than just going in the Orion space capsule.
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  Because it seems, I don't know, it seems like this is a win win.
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  We've been talking about this for a long time.
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  I know a lot of space reporters were like, why do we need Orion
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  when Starship's going to low Earth orbit anyway and they're
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  going to dock with Starship and then go didn't make a lot of
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  sense. So we've been talking about this
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  for a long time. But since there's murmurings
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  within NASA now about this happening, it's this totally a
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  possibility. They're going to need to launch
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  a few SLS, few more SLS rockets before they change completely
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  over to the Starship because Starship can do everything that
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  SLS can and possibly even more. It's, it looks like a bright
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  future for HLS Starship. Now the first mission that these
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  astronauts may do, because they can't go into the Starship
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  immediately then fly to the moon.
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  This they need to test this thing out.
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  So the Polaris program was going to test a docking from a Dragon
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  into a Starship and do some low Earth orbit experimentation and
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  check out to see if the Starship is feasible for low Earth orbit
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  or moon travel. And that was going to be the
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  initial docking and testing phase.
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  So there's a possibility that the Orion could, or maybe even a
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  Dragon could do this dock with the HLS. 2 astronauts would
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  transfer into the HLS Starship, while two others would stay
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  inside the Dragon capsule and do testing from there.
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  From a distance. They could do maneuvering, they
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  could do some burns, they could do orientations, they could
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  possibly even do an Eva, which doesn't make a lot of sense from
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  a Starship standpoint, but it might be something they do in
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  the future just for testing. Then they could redock with the
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  Dragon capsule and then come back down to Earth.
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  So they have to test the Starship out before they get it
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  to the moon. So the HLS Starship is that
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  might be the first Test of this series of tests.
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  Then that HLS Starship could fly to the moon and do a test
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  landing on the lunar surface just to make sure that there's
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  no astronauts on board in case something bad happens.
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  So let me know down the commas below what you think about this
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  'cause it seems like a logical step forward.
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  Like why would they even use the Orion capsule in low Earth orbit
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  to test this when they have a Dragon capsule?
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  Or they do need the Orion capsule to go to the moon and
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  come back down to earth. So I can totally get that.
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  I totally get that part. But everything else seems very
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  logical. Dock in Earth orbit and make
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  sure that everything's OK with the Starship and command a
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  gigantic spaceship between the Earth and the moon.
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  That sounds like a no brainer to me. 150 to 200 feet long
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  Starship. It's a massive ship, can do all
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  sorts of sciencing all sorts of engineering on your way to the
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  moon and in low Earth orbit while you wait and then head to
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  the moon. Sounds sounds great to me.
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  Let me know what you think down in the comments.
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  Now, does this make the SLS rocket unsustainable for the
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  billions and billions of dollars per launch that it costs?
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  I think it does. I think it does because if the
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  Orion spacecraft only has to go to low Earth orbit, they can
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  launch it from another rocket. Whether it's a ULA rocket, what
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  it whatever, it could be a star or it could be another SpaceX
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  rocket, who knows. I'm not sure exactly what the
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  configuration would be, but the SLS rocket is a jobs program.
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  It makes America a bunch of money.
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  And these people are spread across the whole nation making
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  and designing, building, engineering, all of these parts
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  to build this massive SLS rocket.
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  So the SLS rocket is a jobs program as well.
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  So they would lose tax money and they would lose funding if they
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  get rid of the SLS rocket. So I don't think they're going
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  to get rid of the SLS rocket. They may use it for deep space
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  exploration or something like that in the future and just
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  shift over to Starship and SpaceX for the time being for
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  the moon launches. And maybe SLS will be more Mars
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  and further out into the solar system in the future.
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  But we know that Starship will be capable in the future of
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  going to Mars as well. So there's really no reason to
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  use SLS anymore if this is true, other than super far out like
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  science missions. It's a massive rocket and
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  Starship can do everything the SLS can do and then more.
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  So I think this might be the end of the SLS program.
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  This might be the beginning of the end of the SLS program.
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  Hey, thank you so much for listening today.
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