America's "killing line" is taking its toll? NASA delays crewed moon landing to 2028, urgently needs a large number of engineers!
On February 27, NASA officially announced: The "Artemis" crewed moon landing mission originally scheduled for 2027 has been postponed again, with the new target date set for 2028. This is already the countless time this plan has been delayed. If it continues to be postponed like this, it might as well wait until President Trump leaves office. The harsh reality facing America's return to the Moon plan: technical bottlenecks are hard to break through, multiple interests are hard to coordinate, and the talent gap is hard to fill.
The U.S. first proposed to achieve a crewed moon landing by 2024, but due to immature technology and funding issues, it was adjusted to 2025, then further postponed to 2026, 2027, and now finally settled on 2028.
This is behind a series of key technology test failures. First, the "Artemis 2" mission, which is the first attempt in 50 years to conduct a crewed lunar orbit flight, was originally scheduled to launch in March this year, but due to liquid hydrogen leakage and helium flow interruption in the SLS rocket, it was pushed back to after April. How can we talk about landing on the Moon when we haven't even stabilized the lunar orbit flight?
Even more worrying is SpaceX's "Starship" lander. According to the plan, the "Starship" needs to complete up to 12 in-orbit cryogenic fuel refueling docking operations to accumulate enough fuel to fly to the Moon. It sounds very sci-fi, but the problem is - this technology hasn't even been verified once. It's like you want to build an electric car that can travel long distances, but you haven't even built a charging pile yet, and you're rushing to go on the road.
On the other hand, Blue Origin's "Blue Moon" lander is progressing so slowly that it's frustrating. Compared to this, Boeing and Lockheed Martin, traditional aerospace giants, haven't been idle either, but their SLS rocket upgrade projects have been repeatedly delayed, leading to the cancellation of NASA's project, resulting in the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts. These chain reactions have put the entire moon landing plan into a "pull one hair and move the whole body" dilemma.
NASA is facing a tricky problem: a severe shortage of engineers. According to internal information, the current recruitment progress for engineers in key positions is far below expectations. Especially in core technology areas such as propulsion systems, thermal control materials, and in-orbit refueling, there is a lack of sufficient professional talents to support the rapid advancement of the project. Without enough manpower, even the most grand plans can only remain on paper.
Dao Ge thinks that behind this is the harm caused by America's "killing line" to too many middle-class talents, making American youth afraid to boldly study science and engineering. After bearing heavy student loans, mortgages, and even insurance, they can no longer afford to pursue their passion for science and engineering as before. Over the past decade, we have heard too many news stories about American nuclear physicists polishing shoes and aerodynamics experts going bankrupt. This is just a small glimpse into the bigger picture.
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1858335163544650/
Statement: This article represents the personal views of the author.