Falcon Heavy, Saturn V, SLS and Falcon 9 Comparison
After the company Ilona Mask has
developed and conducted successful trials of the heavy rocket carrier Falcon Heavy, NASA is constantly asked uncomfortable questions. They concern their own heavy rocket organization, called the
Space Launch System (SLS). The fact is that not only the development of the rocket, but also its launches cost a lot of money. According to some estimates, NASA spends as much on a SLS project a year as would be enough for a couple of dozen Falcon Heavy launches. Even the President of the United States, Donald Trump, who, in principle, loyal to the agency, was
interested in the “price issue”.
NASA usually did not respond and did not talk about the reasons for continuing to finance such a costly project as the SLS. But, for example, one SLS launch is now estimated at about $ 500 million, while the launch cost of the Falcon Heavy is only $ 90 million. But it was no longer possible to remain silent, so the head of the agency had to give a reasoned and detailed response to accumulated questions.
The head of NASA's manned flight operations, William Gerstenmeyer, stated the following: “After the Falcon Heavy passed the successful tests, we are constantly asked the question - why, instead of the SLS, we don’t buy 5-6 SpaceX rockets and start working with them. What is the reason that we continue to spend money? ". According to Gerstenmeyer, the reason is the different capabilities of the missiles. SLS
is capable of delivering up to 26 tons of payload to circumlunar orbit, but Falcon Heavy is capable of less — to the moon it will “take” from 18 to 22 tons of cargo. True, the cost of a kilogram of cargo placed into the Falcon Heavy orbit is still much lower than that of the SLS.
But we are not talking about small loads of many, when it comes to the moon. According to Gerstenmeyer, large and heavy blocks will be used to assemble the circumlunar orbital station, and here the SLS capabilities will be very useful. But when the station is assembled, then Falcon Heavy will be able to deliver the team and the cargo to it.
NASA plans several modifications for SLS, but they will cost just space sums.It is worth noting that almost immediately a detailed comment was given on this answer. According to third-party specialists, people cannot reside permanently in the lunar orbital station. The fact is that the radiation level there is much higher, and the team will be able to stay at the station for a short time. Well, the orbital station for the Moon itself will be small, it is planned to assemble it from relatively small modules, for which the Falcon Heavy features are enough to take into space. The heaviest module will be an energy module called the Power and Propulsion Bus. Its mass is only 9 tons. A Falcon Heavy can raise about twice as much, and this is the most conservative estimate.
In the course of his further speech, Gerstenmeyer continued to assert that the main calculation is based on the fact that SLS can remove much heavier loads at a time. “We are developing a plan to use SLS as a launch vehicle that can take large and bulky loads into space, bringing it all at once,” Gerstenmeyer said. He believes that not always certain types of cargo can be divided into separate elements in order to bring them to the calculated position in several launches.
In principle, all this is correct, but the problem is that there is no operational plan for the SLS, and it is unlikely that it will arise in the near future, since NASA simply does not have “monolithic and heavy” loads that require SLS. For experts, the words of Gerstenmeyer were not very convincing. As far as you can understand, the agency continues to work on SLS because a lot of money has already been spent, and it will be difficult to explain to the government why the rocket, which cost the taxpayers a huge amount, has never been built, and there is no particular need for this rocket.
Some experts believe that the rocket simply "eats" NASA alive, forcing it to allocate more and more funds. No good is likely to end.