This is how black technology should be used

Chapter 230 Commercial Involvement of the Federal Moon Landing Project

Back then, when the Federal Space Administration officially announced that Interstellar Exploration Technologies would be the only lunar module contractor in the federal government's massive Artemis lunar landing program, Bezos still didn't believe it.

Because it was an extremely immature technology, but it defeated the all-star "national team" composed of Blue Origin + Lockheed Martin + Northrop Grumman + Draper.

His own technology is obviously the most mature, the success rate is the highest, and his cooperation force is still so strong, it is because of this that he dares to be called the "national team".

I lost!

As for the so-called "small business team", the name explains it. A team composed of more than 20 companies came to join in the fun, and it is normal to be passed.

It's just that Bezos really can't think of why he lost?
In terms of mission structure, SLS will launch three astronauts on the Orion spacecraft for a multi-day trip to the lunar orbit, and then the two astronauts will transfer to the lunar module lander, which is their last stop on the lunar surface.

After about a week of exploring the lunar surface after landing, they will take off again in the lunar module lander, return to orbit, dock with the Orion spacecraft, and then return to Earth.

You must know that Emmalon's "moon landing spacecraft" is very immature, and even exploded several times during the development and testing process.

So this result was shocking and unexpected.

According to the usual thinking, Emeron's "Moon Landing Spaceship" won the bid in the "two out of three" link at most, and even if it wins the bid, it will become a backup.

Winning the bid with one of the three choices is equivalent to handing over the final link of the Federation's return to the moon to Emmalon, and the success or failure depends on this one ship.

This decision can be described as quite risky technically.

Because the other two are traditional Apollo-style lunar modules, the lunar module can be transported to the orbit around the moon or the space station around the moon by mature commercial rockets or SLS for parking and assembly.

But since the "lunar landing spacecraft" is an anomaly, with a height of 50 meters and a weight of about 100 tons, a "lunar landing spacecraft" is big enough to fit the other two lunar landing modules into it, even if it is as powerful as the Saturn V Neither the USS nor the SLS rocket will be able to get it to lunar orbit.

What should I do?
Did it teleport over?

And Emeron has his own way, that is, the "super rocket" booster that his company is developing. As long as it succeeds, the original planned "starship" and the starship converted into The "moon lander" is launched into space.

So in fact, the Federal Space Agency is taking money to fund the development of a super rocket spaceship.

Originally, Emma Long had to pay for the research and development by himself, but now it is fine, and the state supports it.

As for landing on the moon or something, it's all by the way.

But another problem emerged, that is, the "super rocket" booster can only send the "lunar spacecraft" to space orbit, not directly to the moon orbit.

Then the only way is for the lunar spacecraft to fly to the moon by itself.

But this requires a complete reusable starship system to be developed and mature.

It is also necessary to overcome large-scale low-temperature propellant on-orbit filling technology and make it mature.

Even one refueling is not enough, the moon landing spacecraft and the starship used for refueling need to be refueled multiple times in orbit.

In addition, a series of security, technical and policy issues that starship manned needs to face must be overcome.

You have to raise several times to get to the moon once, which is really annoying... no, it's quite troublesome!
All in all, they are all going to the moon, the other two are at best "normal" difficulty, and Emmalon is "hell" difficulty.

That's exactly what the Federal Space Agency chose.

It is also said that every test flight of the starship under development has a bidding evaluation team from the space agency to observe it in person. It may be this spirit of repeated failures and strong execution that impressed the space agency and made them make Decide.

Well, just listen carefully.

In addition, Grand Commander Dengzi's serious shortage of funding for the lunar module may also be one of the reasons why Emalon's "lunar landing spacecraft" won the bid.

In the past two years, the budget for the manned lunar module has been slashed all the way, so that the final appropriation can only meet the full work of a family.

If the original "choose two from three" plan is maintained...then no one will get enough money.

Sorry about that in the end - only the lowest price gets it!

As a result, the R&D contract for the lunar module was exclusively awarded to the Interstellar Exploration Technology Company, and the national team and the small business team gathered by giants failed.

But this is far from the end of the story, it's just the beginning!
With this result, the two losers were not reconciled.

The two expressed doubts about the publicity of the tender and said they would appeal.

"You said earlier that the one with the cheapest price will be chosen. We are all based on the maturity of the technology and high feasibility!"

"After all, according to common sense, for such an important event as landing on the moon, these two indicators must be the best consideration. Who knew that you finally chose the cheapest one."

"You have to say it earlier, our offer is cheaper."

Anyway, wait, wait for the selection, and the project is halfway through... Ahem, just raise the price again.

Don't look at me, everyone does it.

Since federal law stipulates that bid appeals must be made within 30 days of bid opening, the two companies submitted a 175-page appeal to the Federal Government Accountability Office during the procurement appeal period.

The point of the complaint is that FASA improperly evaluated various aspects of the program and did not give the other two the opportunity to adapt their quotations and bids.

Then, under pressure, the Federal Space Agency suspended the execution of the Interstellar Exploration Technology contract, and all processes were "frozen" until the Accountability Office made a final ruling.

According to the workflow of the Accountability Office, a decision must be made within 100 days.

Since it doesn't satisfy me, then everyone should stop playing.

At that time, many people were dissatisfied with the fact that the Federal Aeronautics and Space Administration only favored the Emalon family.

First, the chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee directly expressed disappointment. He also said that the Federal Space Agency should not announce the bidding results before the new director has been appointed, and emphasized that necessary backups should be maintained for manned lunar landing-level missions.

The federal "Deep Space Exploration Alliance" congratulated NASA on the announcement of the bid opening results, but did not mention the winning bidder.

Later, when the new director of the Federal Space Agency took office, he stated that regardless of whether the "National Team" and "Small Business Team" appealed and protested against the "lunar spacecraft" successfully, he would try to award a second "lunar module" contract in the future.

The current congressional appropriations are indeed not enough to support the development of the two lunar modules, so he needs to do some work.

That is how to ask for money.

In fact, Congress is also currently inclined to choose two companies to develop lunar modules. After all, that is safer, but their idea is to use that little money to invest in two companies.

But NASA was aware of the technical problems. It knew that the money was simply not enough to invest in two companies, so it gave all of it to Emmaron, worth nearly 30 billion federal coins.

Congress says no, and NASA says you won't pay, so I can only choose the cheapest one.

In terms of quotations, the quotation of 29 billion for Emmalon's "Moon Landing Spaceship" is indeed the cheapest.

The "National Team" lunar module is composed of Blue Origin Aerospace + Lockheed Martin + Northrop Grumman + Draper, and the price is 60 billion.

The "Small Business Team" lunar module is led by Dyne Technology Company, leading 25 subcontractors, and the quotation is 99 billion.

For such a small amount of money, who do you think the space agency will choose?
Everyone was curious about the lively batch of tenders. Putting aside political and angry factors, why did the space agency insist on choosing Emalon?
After the bidding results were announced, NASA released the bid evaluation documents, which publicly explained the bid evaluation process, methods, strategies and results.

The space agency wants everyone to see whether it has chosen the wrong one!
(End of this chapter)