Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to Re: Mars, moon or NEO?

Aerospace R&D costs a lot more than you think
Larry J — (archived)

It took billions of dollars (and 1960s dollars at that) and 7 years for Grumman to develop the Apollo Lunar Modules. It'd be a massive undertaking to try to reproduce a new LM simply because all of the tooling and expertise is long gone. The drawings still exist on microfiche, the tooling could be reproduced (for many million dollars) but the expertise would have to be grown anew.

That leaves developing a new lunar lander. This may seem like a relatively small task but it isn't. R&D for developing a new lunar lander would easily go into the billions of dollars simply because it is a challenging task. Weight control is one of the most important factors and lightweight materials are very expensive. In some ways, weight control is more important today than it was in the 1960s simply because we don't have heavy lifters like the Saturn V anymore.

There are some things we can do to reduce the costs of developing a new lunar lander. One of the most important things would be to use off-the-shelf components to the greatest extent possible. There weren't many off-the-shelf components available in the 1960s so just about everything had to be developed from scratch, a difficult and time consuming prospect. To get an idea just how difficult it was, I recommend you watch Episode 4 of "From The Earth to the Moon" ("Spider"), one of the best shows I've seen on the behind the scenes struggle to develop an aerospace vehicle.

Just for sake of comparison, Boeing spends billions on R&D for a new airliner design and that's a relatively simple vehicle compared to a lunar lander.

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