SpaceX wants to build a new spaceport in Louisiana.
The company wants to start construction as early as next year and launch Starship, its giant rocket, from the new location. SpaceX said it plans to invest $100 billion into the spaceport and create over 3,000 jobs in Louisiana.
Dale Ketcham, a space industry expert, said this new spaceport is massive and would increase the company’s launch cadence significantly.
“Ten to 12 launch pads for Starship, that is huge,” Ketcham said. “Based upon what I have heard from SpaceX, my guess is this will not be the last one. Their intention is to provide the capability for massive, massive launches into space.”
While SpaceX already has a presence here in Florida and in Texas, Ketcham said Louisiana serves as new territory for the space company. Plus, the land serves as a big advantage for SpaceX.
“We are constrained here in Florida,” Ketcham. “We don't have 12 launch sites. But additionally, one of the advantages of Louisiana, in particular -- it's a clear launch site going south for polar orbits. I'm sure a huge factor in this was the ready availability of natural gas, because we we're already stretched for how we're going to provide natural gas as fuel for the Cape as the launch cadence builds up.”
Ketcham said the planned facility is similar to what the company has done in Texas. He said it seems like Louisiana has a reputation for less environmental regulation. The state’s coastline is already facing issues, Ketcham said likely due to natural gas exports. Part of this new spaceport project states that SpaceX will help with some of the environmental struggles the state is facing.
“As understand it, SpaceX is commendably talking about what it's going to do to restore a lot of that coastline, and I hope they do,” Ketcham said. “That's a big investment, and I'm assuming that a big chunk of that $100 billion tab that they're associating with it, that SpaceX is going to spend a lot of that is going to be environmental restoration. I hope so.”
Making and testing new moon suits
NASA is preparing for the future Artemis astronauts who will walk on the moon. One critical thing for that task is new spacesuits.
Future Artemis spacesuits need to be able to withstand the moon’s harsh environment, like extreme temperatures. Mike Snyder is a test manager with NASA’s integrated test facilities with the xEVA systems, or the Exploration Extravehicular Activity project. He said new spacesuits are needed for when astronauts return to the moon. Even though NASA has spacesuits for spacewalks at the International Space Station, Snyder said that design isn’t suitable for the lunar environment.
“The ones that we currently have and that we're using on ISS are getting up there in age," Snyder said "We certainly have made advancements and everything. We're also leveraging our commercial capabilities and our commercial partners. For example, the ones that are on ISS today were actually used during the shuttle program as well and were used in the construction of the ISS. Those were never really meant for anything beyond low Earth orbit or those types of things, so a new generation of suits is required.”
One of the challenges the moon presents are its harsh temperatures. Snyder said the xEVA systems need to not only be able to handle extreme temperatures both hot and cold. Plus, the moon’s regolith also poses some challenges.
“The lunar regolith is just a fancy term for moon dirt,” Snyder said but it's very, it's very fine. It's not like your conventional dirt that you might have in your yard.”
As far as testing, Snyder explained that there are several ways to test the suits, including things like thermal vacuum testing and simulating the moon’s regolith with simulated moon dirt. Plus, NASA astronauts actually wear and test the suit here on Earth.
“We routinely have a number of astronauts across various physical characteristics, sizes, and everything like that, because we want to try to get the full spectrum of what a person can do in the suit,” Snyder said. “Whether they are a shorter person or a taller person. The crew office certainly helps doing that, not only from getting a jump on any potential training objectives, but their feedback. A lot of them have obviously been in suits before and have maybe had the opportunity to do an EVA on ISS or someplace like that. So, their feedback, their firsthand experience is absolutely critical.”.
