A former Nasa administrator has warned that America’s plan to return astronauts to the moon is technically unworkable, urging a much simpler approach – similar to China’s – as the only realistic way to stay ahead.
Mike Griffin, a 76-year-old aerospace engineer who led Nasa during the George W. Bush administration, told Congress that the Artemis programme “cannot work” because it relies on an overly complex design and many unproven technologies.
Under the current plan, the Artemis III mission must refuel its gigantic lunar lander in orbit at least a dozen times and store super-cold propellants for long periods – among other technologies never demonstrated in space – in order to land two Americans on the moon in 2027.
“The Artemis III mission and those beyond should be cancelled and we should start over,” Griffin said at a House hearing last Thursday.
He urged lawmakers to switch to a more streamlined, mature dual-launch architecture that closely resembles the strategy China has embraced for its own moon landing.
That architecture – which Griffin began advocating in 2010 after Nasa cancelled Constellation, an earlier attempt to return humans to the moon – uses two heavy-lift rockets to send the crew vehicle and lander separately into lunar orbit.