The US plans to solicit new designs for vehicles that can ferry astronauts to and from the Moon, launching fresh competition to Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
Nasa plans to release a draft request for proposals by the end of March for Moon lander concepts for missions after the Artemis III programme, which aims to bring astronauts to the Moon in 2025, the agency announced on Wednesday.
The initial lunar landings for Artemis will be supported by SpaceX.
Speaking to reporters on a conference call, Nasa Administrator Bill Nelson declined to disclose how much the agency may spend on the new effort. He said details would be included in US President Joe Biden’s budget proposal next week.
Additional competition could open the door for an award to Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin. The space company, backed by the billionaire founder of Amazon, disputed Nasa's decision to award its initial lander deal to SpaceX in April 2021.
SpaceX was also asked to propose a lander for continued missions beyond Artemis III under its existing Nasa contract, the agency said.
Blue Origin said it is ready to compete for the project.
The company is “thrilled that Nasa is creating competition by procuring a second human lunar landing system. By doing so, Nasa will establish the critical redundancy and robustness needed for establishing permanent US lunar presence”, a representative said in an emailed statement.
SpaceX didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment on Nasa’s plans. The agency’s decision to seek additional design proposals comes after several influential US members of Congress last year said that the agency needs a second company to land astronauts on the Moon.
Nasa is seeking additional design concepts as part of a plan to have a series of Moon landings following Artemis III.
The space agency is on schedule for a Moon landing without a crew in 2024 and then with a crew the following year, Mr Nelson said. The agency envisions about one landing per year over the next decade after that initial crew’s voyage, he said.
Company profile
Company: Verity
Date started: May 2021
Founders: Kamal Al-Samarrai, Dina Shoman and Omar Al Sharif
Based: Dubai
Sector: FinTech
Size: four team members
Stage: Intially bootstrapped but recently closed its first pre-seed round of $800,000
Investors: Wamda, VentureSouq, Beyond Capital and regional angel investors
House-hunting
Top 10 locations for inquiries from US house hunters, according to Rightmove
- Edinburgh, Scotland
- Westminster, London
- Camden, London
- Glasgow, Scotland
- Islington, London
- Kensington and Chelsea, London
- Highlands, Scotland
- Argyll and Bute, Scotland
- Fife, Scotland
- Tower Hamlets, London
The specs
Engine: 5.2-litre twin-turbo V12
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 715bhp
Torque: 900Nm
Price: Dh1,289,376
On sale: now
How to get exposure to gold
Although you can buy gold easily on the Dubai markets, the problem with buying physical bars, coins or jewellery is that you then have storage, security and insurance issues.
A far easier option is to invest in a low-cost exchange traded fund (ETF) that invests in the precious metal instead, for example, ETFS Physical Gold (PHAU) and iShares Physical Gold (SGLN) both track physical gold. The VanEck Vectors Gold Miners ETF invests directly in mining companies.
Alternatively, BlackRock Gold & General seeks to achieve long-term capital growth primarily through an actively managed portfolio of gold mining, commodity and precious-metal related shares. Its largest portfolio holdings include gold miners Newcrest Mining, Barrick Gold Corp, Agnico Eagle Mines and the NewMont Goldcorp.
Brave investors could take on the added risk of buying individual gold mining stocks, many of which have performed wonderfully well lately.
London-listed Centamin is up more than 70 per cent in just three months, although in a sign of its volatility, it is down 5 per cent on two years ago. Trans-Siberian Gold, listed on London's alternative investment market (AIM) for small stocks, has seen its share price almost quadruple from 34p to 124p over the same period, but do not assume this kind of runaway growth can continue for long
However, buying individual equities like these is highly risky, as their share prices can crash just as quickly, which isn't what what you want from a supposedly safe haven.
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
