Tom Mueller, SpaceX Employee Number 1 and founder/CEO of Impulse Space, laid out his plan to bring reliable and multi-ton landing capabilities to the Moon. This would differ from his former employer’s mission of focusing on Mars and viewing the Moon only as a distraction.
Mueller was the lead on engine development and design at SpaceX, being credited with the creation of the company’s Draco, Merlin, and SuperDraco engines. He’s considered one of the top propulsion engineers in the industry, which is why no one was shocked when he left SpaceX to start in-space propulsion company Impulse Space in 2021.
The company has since seen much success providing Mira stages to its customers for to their final destination and in orbit maneuvers. Impulse is also working on a larger kick stage called Helios. Mueller, however, has bigger plans than just orbiting around Earth.
In a blog post, Mueller shared his vision for Impulse to expand into providing lunar landing services to those who need it. Using technology from Helios and Mira, Impulse’s proposed lunar lander would be able to land up to three tons of cargo on the lunar surface.
Impulse’s lander would fit somewhere in between NASA’s Commercial Lunar Services Program, which focuses on small, light payloads, and the Human Landing System, which is designed for crew-capable landers. This would create a new midsized class of landers, as Mueller explains, designed for 0.5 to 13 tons of payload.
Mueller believes the company can begin missions with its lander and Helios kick stage as soon as 2028.
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