NASA’s 14-year effort to build lunar suits is going to consume more than $1
billion and will deliver working products after the space agency’s goal of
landing two astronauts at the moon south pole in 2024, according to a new
audit from NASA’s Inspector General.
“NASA’s current schedule is to produce the first two flight-ready xEMUs by
November 2024, but the Agency faces significant challenges in meeting this
goal,” the report said. “This schedule includes approximately a 20-month
delay in delivery for the planned design, verification, and testing suit,
two qualification suits, an ISS Demo suit, and two lunar flight suits.
“These delays—attributable to funding shortfalls, COVID-19 impacts, and
technical challenges—have left no schedule margin for delivery of the two
flight-ready xEMUs. Given the integration requirements, the suits would not
be ready for flight until April 2025 at the earliest. Moreover, by the time
two flight-ready xEMUs are available, NASA will have spent over a billion
dollars on the development and assembly of its next-generation spacesuits,”
the audit added.
How much the delay will matter is unclear. Although NASA’s goal continues to
be landing astronauts at the lunar south pole in 2024, agency officials have
acknowledged that the date could slip for a number of reasons.
“For example, our previous audit work identified significant delays in other
major programs essential to a lunar landing, including the Space Launch
System rocket and Orion capsule,” the IG audit said. “Moreover, delays
related to lunar lander development and the recently decided lander contract
award bid protests will also preclude a 2024 landing. As spacesuit
development continues, evolving and competing requirements from key program
stakeholders such as the HLS, ISS, and Gateway increases the risk of future
cost, schedule, and performance issues.”
The report made the following recommendations to NASA:
(1) adjusting the schedule as appropriate to reduce development risks;
(2) developing an integrated master schedule to incorporate and align the
hardware deliveries and training needs of the dependent Programs—Gateway,
ISS, and HLS—and the Flight Operations Directorate;
(3) ensuring technical requirements for the next-generation suits are
solidified before selecting the acquisition strategy to procure suits for
the ISS and Artemis programs; and
(4) developing an acquisition strategy for the next-generation spacesuits
that meets the needs of both the ISS and Artemis programs.
NASA concurred with the recommendations and agreed to implement them.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said his company could develop the moon suits if
needed. SpaceX is building the Human Landing System that will take
astronauts to the lunar surface.
The report’s results in brief section follows.
NASA’S DEVELOPMENT OF NEXT-GENERATION SPACESUITS
NASA Office of Inspector General
Report No. IG-21-025
August 10, 2021
Results in Brief
Why We Performed This Audit
The development of new spacesuits is a critical component of achieving
NASA’s goals of returning humans to the Moon, continuing safe operations on
the International Space Station (ISS), and exploring Mars and other deep
space locations. For extravehicular activities such as spacewalks or
exploring the lunar surface, astronauts require Extravehicular Mobility
Units (EMU), which includes the spacesuit itself and the hardware that
physically connects the EMU to the ISS and other space systems. Currently,
astronauts use EMUs designed 45 years ago for the Space Shuttle Program and
rely on these refurbished and partially redesigned spacesuits for
extravehicular activities on the ISS.
For the past 14 years, NASA has been developing next-generation spacesuit
technology, which 5 years ago led to the creation of the project known as
the Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Units (xEMU) that will be used to
support astronaut involvement in multiple programs. Specifically, the xEMU
will be used on the ISS and Artemis missions involving both the Gateway and
Human Landing System (HLS). We reported in 2017 that despite spending nearly
$200 million on extravehicular spacesuit development over the previous
9-year period, the Agency remained years away from having a flight-ready
spacesuit to use on exploration missions. Since our 2017 report, NASA has
spent an additional $220 million—for a total of $420 million—on spacesuit
development.
This audit examined NASA’s development of next-generation spacesuits for ISS
and Artemis missions. Specifically, we examined the extent to which NASA is
addressing challenges related to cost, schedule, and performance of the
next-generation spacesuit system. To accomplish our objective, we performed
work at Johnson Space Center and Marshall Space Flight Center. We reviewed
and analyzed NASA’s financial accounting system; planning, programming,
budgeting, and execution information; and relevant laws and regulations. We
also interviewed NASA project officials and reviewed stakeholder
requirements documents and key NASA policies and procedures governing risk
management.
What We Found
NASA’s current schedule is to produce the first two flight-ready xEMUs by
November 2024, but the Agency faces significant challenges in meeting this
goal. This schedule includes approximately a 20-month delay in delivery for
the planned design, verification, and testing suit, two qualification suits,
an ISS Demo suit, and two lunar flight suits. These delays—attributable to
funding shortfalls, COVID-19 impacts, and technical challenges—have left no
schedule margin for delivery of the two flight-ready xEMUs. Given the
integration requirements, the suits would not be ready for flight until
April 2025 at the earliest. Moreover, by the time two flight-ready xEMUs are
available, NASA will have spent over a billion dollars on the development
and assembly of its next-generation spacesuits.
Given these anticipated delays in spacesuit development, a lunar landing in
late 2024 as NASA currently plans is not feasible. That said, NASA’s
inability to complete development of xEMUs for a 2024 Moon landing is by no
means the only factor impacting the viability of the Agency’s current
return-to-the-Moon timetable. For example, our previous audit work
identified significant delays in other major programs essential to a lunar
landing, including the Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule.
Moreover, delays related to lunar lander development and the recently
decided lander contract award bid protests will also preclude a 2024
landing. As spacesuit development continues, evolving and competing
requirements from key program stakeholders such as the HLS, ISS, and Gateway
increases the risk of future cost, schedule, and performance issues.
Additionally, prior to their use on ISS and Artemis missions, astronauts
will require suits for training. However, training needs across the
stakeholders—particularly the ISS and HLS programs—do not align with
projections of when suit hardware will be available. Specifically, the EVA
Office is concerned there will not be sufficient quantities of training
hardware available for early training events to support the currently
planned 2024 Artemis III mission.
As NASA continues to develop and mature its next-generation spacesuit
capabilities, the Agency must decide on its approach to procuring additional
suits for both ISS and Artemis missions. In October 2019, NASA issued a
Request for Information (RFI) to determine industry capabilities to fulfill
future spacesuit needs. At that time, NASA intended to initiate a hybrid
contract consisting of a single prime contractor for integration and
multiple awards for development and sustainment known as the Exploration
Extravehicular Activity Production and Services (xEVAPS) contract. However,
after 18 months NASA canceled the xEVAPS RFI and issued a new RFI in April
2021 for the Exploration Extravehicular Activity Services (xEVAS),
significantly altering its approach for future suit acquisition by
purchasing services instead of equipment. As previously discussed, to date
NASA has spent more than $420 million on spacesuit design and development,
but the new xEVAS RFI gives industry the choice to either leverage NASA’s
designs or propose their own. Therefore, the extent to which NASA’s
investments will be utilized is unclear. Additionally, the xEVAS RFI does
not stipulate that the suit be compatible with both the ISS and Artemis
programs, a distinction that could result in industry developing (and NASA
purchasing) two different spacesuits—one for use in low Earth orbit on the
ISS and another for use on the lunar surface during Artemis missions. Given
the Station’s limited expected lifespan, developing a suit solely for the
ISS may not prove cost effective.
What We Recommended
To ensure the successful development of the xEMU, we made four
recommendations to the Associate Administrator for the Human Exploration and
Operations Mission Directorate, including (1) adjusting the schedule as
appropriate to reduce development risks; (2) developing an integrated master
schedule to incorporate and align the hardware deliveries and training needs
of the dependent Programs—Gateway, ISS, and HLS—and the Flight Operations
Directorate; (3) ensuring technical requirements for the next-generation
suits are solidified before selecting the acquisition strategy to procure
suits for the ISS and Artemis programs; and (4) developing an acquisition
strategy for the next-generation spacesuits that meets the needs of both the
ISS and Artemis programs.
We provided a draft of this report to NASA management who concurred with our
recommendations and described planned actions to address them. We consider
the proposed actions responsive and will close the recommendations upon
their completion and verification.
No comments:
Post a Comment