question: Why does NASA have to wait until 2024 to land on the moon?
comment: We don't have any sort of rocket that can travel to the moon and back. We don't have a vehicle that can detach from that rocket and land on the moon. Takes a LOT of time and money to design and build those. Even 2024 seems way too soon. That's only five years. Plus, all the guys who worked on the Moon missions are long since retired or dead. We need to train all the current guys so they don't screw this up and get someone killed. The technology we used to go to the moon and back in the 1960's is all completely outdated and would be of no use. It's like someone saying they want to build a modern racecar by studying a Model T. Plus we have no astronauts who have trained for anything like that. It's not something you can learn as you go. Takes years of training because if something goes wrong, you don't have anyone but yourself to fix it. Plus even a delay of a few seconds in failing to react could spell your doom. Space is very unforgiving.
passages: The original deadline was the end of 2014, with enhanced prize money for a landing by 2012. In 2015, XPRIZE announced that the competition deadline would be extended to December 2017 if at least one team could secure a verified launch contract by 31 December 2015. Two teams secured such a launch contract, and the deadline was extended. In August 2017, the deadline was extended again, to 31 March 2018.
   Section::::Contractors.
  
  The companies selected are considered "main contractors" that can sub-contract projects to other companies of their choice. The first companies granted the right to bid on CLPS contracts are:
  
  On May 31, 2019 three of those were awarded lander contracts (displayed in bold).
  
  On July 29, 2019 NASA announced that it had granted OrbitBeyond's request to be released from the contract citing "internal corporate challenges".
  
  Section::::Payload selection.
   The first batch of science payloads are being developed in NASA facilities, due to the short time available before the first planned flights. Subsequent selections include payloads provided by universities and industry. Calls for payloads are planned to be released each year for additional opportunities.
  
  Section::::Payload selection.:First batch.
   The CLPS program is being operated by NASA Headquarter's Science Mission Directorate, in-conjunction with the Human Exploration and Operations and Science Technology Mission Directorates. NASA expects the contractors to provide all activities necessary to safely integrate, accommodate, transport, and operate NASA payloads, including launch vehicles, lunar lander spacecraft, lunar surface systems, Earth re-entry vehicles and associated resources. Flight opportunities are scheduled to start in mid 2020.
  
  Section::::History.
   When the concept study on the "Resource Prospector" rover was cancelled in April 2018, NASA officials explained that lunar surface exploration will continue in the future, but using commercial lander services under a new CLPS program. Later that April, NASA launched the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program as the first step in the solicitation for flights to the Moon. In April 2018, CLPS issued a Draft Request for Proposal, and in September 2018 the actual CLPS Request for Proposal was issued. The text of the formal solicitation and selected contractors are here:
   The 2-year extension to the NASA/Masten SAA signed September 27, 2017 has a total of 32 milestones. The additional milestones cover XL-1, XL-1T and the XEUS concept.
  
  On November 29, 2018 Masten was awarded a Commercial Lunar Payload Services contract by NASA, which makes it eligible to bid on delivering science and technology payloads to the Moon for NASA. The landing will be no earlier than 2021.
  
  Section::::Companies.:Moon Express.
   ESA announced on 15 February 2005 the endorsement of a proposal to extend the mission of "SMART-1" by one year until August 2006. This date was later shifted to 3 September 2006 to enable further scientific observations from Earth.
  
  Section::::Flight.:Lunar impact.
   To provide an added incentive for teams to complete their missions quickly, it was announced that the prize would decrease from US$20 million to US$15 million whenever a government-led mission lands on and explores the lunar surface. However, in November 2013, the organizers and the teams agreed to drop this rule, as the launch of the Chinese Chang'e 3 probe—which landed on the Moon in December 2013—approached.
   The NASA InSight seismology probe was launched in May 2018 and landed on Mars in November. The Parker Solar Probe was launched to explore the Sun in August 2018, and reached its first perihelion in November, traveling faster than any prior spacecraft. On 20 October the ESA and JAXA launched BepiColombo to Mercury, on a 10-year mission featuring several flybys and eventually deploying two orbiters in 2025 for local study. The asteroid sampling mission Hayabusa2 reached its target Ryugu in June, and the similar OSIRIS-REx probe reached Bennu in December. China launched its Chang'e 4 lander/rover in December which performed the first ever soft landing on the far side of the Moon in January 2019; a communications relay was sent to the second Earth-Moon Lagrange point in May. The Google Lunar X Prize expired on 31 March without a winner for its $20 million grand prize, because none of its five finalist teams were able to launch a commercial lunar lander mission before the deadline.
   The NASA Administrator is directed to "strive to achieve" the following milestones:
  
  BULLET::::- Return Americans to the Moon no later than 2020.
  
  BULLET::::- Launch the Crew Exploration Vehicle as close to 2010 as possible.
  
  BULLET::::- Use the International Space Station to study the impacts of long duration stays in space on the human body.
  
  BULLET::::- Enable humans to land on and return from Mars and other destinations on a timetable that is technically and fiscally possible.
  
  Section::::Aeronautics.
   Section::::Ares I/Ares V Cost and Schedule vs. DIRECT.:Ares I Schedule.
  
  The schedule for Ares I incurred several delays since the inception of the new lunar program. The original intent in the Exploration Systems Architecture Study (ESAS) Report was to have a crewed flight as early as mid-2011 after the Space Shuttle retirement in 2010. A subsequent official NASA schedule had a 65% confidence that the first crewed flight of Ares I with Orion (Orion 2) would occur in March 2015.
   On 16 December 2014, XPRIZE announced another extension in the prize deadline from 31 December 2015 to 31 December 2016. In May 2015, the foundation announced another extension of the deadline. The deadline for winning the prize was now December 2017, but contingent on at least one team showing by 31 December 2015 that they have a secured contract for launch. On 9 October 2015, team SpaceIL announced their officially verified launch contract with SpaceX, therefore extending the competition until the end of 2017.
  
  On 16 August 2017, the deadline was extended again, to 31 March 2018.
   The Draft Request for Proposal's covering letter states that the contracts will last up to 10 years. As NASA's need to send payloads to the lunar surface (and other cislunar destination) arises it will issue Firm-Fixed Price 'task orders' that the approved prime contractors can bid for. A Scope Of Work will be issued with each task order. The CLPS proposals are being evaluated against five Technical Accessibility Standards.
  
  NASA is assuming a cost of one million dollars per kilogram delivered to the lunar surface. (This figure may be revised after a lunar landing when the actual costs are available.)
   Once in low lunar orbit the Lunar Lander prepares for the final phase of the mission waiting for the correct constellation of orbit, Earth and Sun geometry and performing the checkout and calibration operations of the systems critical for landing. The time spent by the Lander in LLO before the start of the landing operations is expected to last from a number of weeks up to a maximum of 3 months.
  
  Section::::Mission scenario.:Descent and landing.
   BULLET::::- Born: Mick Doohan, Australian motorcycle racer and five time 500 cc World Champion; in Gold Coast, Queensland
  
  Section::::June 5, 1965 (Saturday).
  
  BULLET::::- Joseph F. Shea, NASA's manager of the Apollo program, told reporters that the ongoing Gemini 4 mission had resolved five important issues for a manned mission to the Moon, and that "If everything goes as well as the Gemini-4 shot today, then we can get everything done for the Moon shot by mid-1968", at least one and a half years ahead of the projected 1970 date.
   On December 4, 2006, NASA announced it was planning a permanent Moon base. The goal was to start building the Moon base by 2020, and by 2024, have a fully functional base that would allow for crew rotations and in-situ resource utilization. However, in 2009, the Augustine Committee found the program to be on an "unsustainable trajectory." In 2010, President Barack Obama halted existing plans, including the Moon base, and directed a generic focus on manned missions to asteroids and Mars, as well as extending support for the International Space Station.
  
  Since 2011, NASA's strategic goals have been
   Currently the Lunar CATALYST initiative has signed three no-funds-exchanged Space Act Agreement (SAA) partnerships with U.S. private sector entities. In October 2017 NASA extended the SAA with the companies for 2 additional years. The updated agreements contain new milestones, permitting progress to be monitored. NASA hopes the companies could begin delivering small payloads to the Moon as early as 2018.
  
  NASA has published that it and other space agencies have plans to launch almost two dozen robotic missions in the next decade (starting 2017) that commercial lunar transportation capabilities may be able to bid for.
  
  Section::::Initiative overview.
   In August 2007, NASA stated that all future missions and explorations of the Moon will be done entirely using the SI system. This was done to improve cooperation with space agencies of other countries which already use the metric system. In 2018 NASA released plans to "return to the Moon with commercial and international partners as part of an overall agency Exploration Campaign in support of Space Policy Directive 1. They plan to start with robotic missions on the lunar surface, as well as a Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway for astronauts in space beyond the Moon. Right now, NASA is preparing to purchase new small lunar payload delivery services, develop lunar landers, and conduct more research on the Moon’s surface ahead of a human return." The government agency has announced future crewed missions involving lunar activity. The mission involves the Orion spacecraft and is planned between 2022 and 2028.
   On July 20, 2016, the Federal Aviation Administration approved Moon Express plans for a mission to deliver commercial payloads to the Moon, making Moon Express the first private company to receive government approval for a commercial space mission beyond traditional Earth orbit under the requirements of the Outer Space Treaty.
  
  On October 31, 2017, NASA extended the agreement for the Lunar CATALYST initiative for 2 more years.
   On November 29, 2018 Astrobotic was made eligible to bid on NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services to deliver science and technology payloads to the Moon, and in May 2019, it was awarded its first lander contract for NASA. Therefore, in addition of the 14 commercial payloads, the lander will carry 14 NASA-sponsored payloads, for a total of 24.
   In March, NASA was studying the possibility of flying the first Apollo mission as a joint space rendezvous with the final Project Gemini mission, Gemini 12 in November 1966. But by May, delays in making Apollo ready for flight just by itself, and the extra time needed to incorporate compatibility with the Gemini, made that impractical. This became moot when slippage in readiness of the AS-204 spacecraft caused the last-quarter 1966 target date to be missed, and the mission was rescheduled for February 21, 1967.
  
  Section::::Mission background.
   For the science operations, LADEE was maneuvered into an orbit with a periselene of and an aposelene of . The science phase of LADEE's primary mission was initially planned as 100 days, and later given a 28-day extension. The extension provided an opportunity for the satellite to gather an additional full lunar cycle worth of very low-altitude data to help scientists unravel the nature of the Moon's tenuous exosphere.
  
  Section::::Spaceflight operations.:End of mission.
   On November 1, 2016 NASA issued a Request for Information (RFI) about possible small lunar surface payloads that can be delivered to the Moon's surface in the 2017-2020 time-frame using U.S. commercial lunar cargo transportation service providers. Of particular interest were payloads that address NASA's strategic objectives including filling one or more of NASA's lunar exploration Strategic Knowledge Gaps (SKGs).
   On 29 November 2018, NASA announced the first nine companies, including Lockheed Martin, that will be allowed to bid on contracts by the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS). These contracts are indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contracts with a combined maximum contract value of $2.6 billion during the next 10 years. The first formal solicitation is expected sometime in 2019, to transport payloads for clients focused on exploration, in situ resource utilization (ISRU), and lunar science.
   The competitive nature of the CLPS program is expected to reduce the cost of lunar exploration, accelerate a robotic return to the Moon, sample return, resource prospecting in the south polar region, and promote innovation and growth of related commercial industries. The payload development program is called Development and Advancement of Lunar Instrumentation (DALI), and the payload goals are exploration, "in situ" resource utilization (ISRU), and lunar science. The first instruments are expected to be selected by Summer 2019, and the flight opportunities start in 2021. 
  
raw_presuppositions: Nasa has to wait until 2024 to land on the moon.
raw_corrections: 2024 may still be too early for Nasa to land on the moon.