Elon Musk Offers Services to Make SpaceX Spacesuits for NASA Artemis, More Expensive than Falcon, Dragon

Elon Musk is offering SpaceX's services to make spacesuits for NASA and its upcoming Artemis Moon mission, to help save on costs. Currently, NASA is already at $420 million in the research and development of the Moon spacesuits and has not yet made a viable one.

SpaceX's team says that the Falcon and Dragon are cheaper to manufacture, combined.

NASA's Artemis Moon Mission would use the Space Launch System or SLS rocket from Boeing to bring back man and bring the first woman to the lunar surface.

Elon Musk Offers to Make SpaceX Spacesuits

In a discussion on Twitter, the founder and CEO said that SpaceX would be willing to make spacesuits for NASA if they are needed or tasked to do so. Musk has replied to a tweet by Michael Sheetz, where screenshots of NASA's report regarding their Artemis mission's progress as of this month, in preparation for the 2024 flight.

Here, Musk and SpaceX are willing to intervene and take over to make a spacesuit that would protect its astronauts on their way and while on the surface. Going out of Earth's atmosphere would mean exposure to different radiations and substances like the Sun's ultraviolet rays.

That being said, an adequate spacesuit is needed by NASA for its Moon Mission, and it is something that is up to date and usable for the current situations, different from the earlier missions.

NASA Artemis Moon Mission

NASA has reported the development of their Artemis Moon mission in general, and they have already used up $420 million of their budget in creating versions of viable spacesuits to use. The total of their budget is at $1.025 billion, so the space agency still has $625 million spares for this project. For now, the report says that the earliest of the spacesuits would come by April 2025, as delays of the pandemic have caused them to a slower pace. The intended year of the Artemis mission is 2024.

SpaceX Dragon, Falcon Cheaper than NASA Spacesuits

According to Tom Mueller's tweet reply to the NASA report, the SpaceX Falcon and cargo Dragon were developed for less than $1 billion, with its costs combined. Now, the NASA spacesuits are nearing its halfway point of using up the budget, and their delivery date would be at less than four years from now, exceeding the mission date.

Musk agrees with what Mueller said, and that NASA's developer of the spacesuits is using up so much money with regards to its creation of the different needs of the Artemis.

It seems that Musk is willing to take up the mantle for the Moon, and would treat it like how it did with the Commercial Crew that is a commercial success for SpaceX.

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Written by Isaiah Richard