Well, he's certainly right about Artemis being a very inefficient architecture, but he's probably coming from wanting SLS money for himself and not the 20x Starship launch per 2 person visit.
In other news, Elon is taking a lot of heat for suggesting US should deviate from its 'Moon-to-Mars' plan.
Well, he's certainly right about Artemis being a very inefficient architecture, but he's probably coming from wanting SLS money for himself and not the 20x Starship launch per 2 person visit.
Going straight to Mars is certainly a great way to lock in more money for longer and shed themselves of the baggage of having to get Starship HLS working in 2 years.
It's been 20 years since Constellation and 8 years since Artemis, there's nothing short term about American lunar attempts, at some point you have to use evidence to guide your capability assessment.The Moon has far more strategic value than Mars, so much so that the DoD has deemed cislunar space a national security concern, as such there will be no national-level funding for large scale Mars projects before the industrialization of the Moon, especially when they see China start to utilize lunar resources. They won't give it up.
The problem has always been short-term vs. long-term goals. Administrations and Congress know they can’t rely on the years in office that it takes to create and manage sustainable programs so they opt for the shorter-term programs that will give them the “win” in the public eye that is needed to bolster their reelection efforts. American ingenuity and expertise in this area is the best in the world but is hamstrung by the shackles that political leadership has to deal with.