O administrador da Nasa, Jared Isaacman, está determinado a colocar foguetes de grande porte em direção à Lua anualmente para sustentar o programa Artemis. Essa ambição é fortemente impulsionada pela nova corrida espacial travada contra a China. “I feel good. I feel like we are certainly on a more achievable path to the lunar surface today than where we were before”, afirmou Isaacman.
Em entrevista recente, o líder da agência demonstrou total confiança no programa espacial americano após o êxito da missão Artemis II, realizada em abril ao redor da Lua. Logo antes da conversa, inclusive, houve o anúncio de que o comandante da Artemis II, Reid Wiseman, assumirá o cargo de novo vice-diretor do Laboratório de Propulsão a Jato da Nasa.
Apesar dos avanços, Isaacman enfatizou que a jornada entre o sucesso atual, as futuras aterrissagens tripuladas e a construção de uma base lunar permanente exigirá múltiplos lançamentos do megafoguete Sistema de Lançamento Espacial (SLS).
“You know, a lot of people, especially in the space community, start getting [into] if the landers are there or not. I don’t really care about that right now. What I care about is that we are launching big rockets no less than once a year”, pontuou o dirigente.
“You know, a lot of people, especially in the space community, start getting [into] if the landers are there or not. I don’t really care about that right now. What I care about is that we are launching big rockets no less than once a year”, acrescentou. “So, we had a great mission in April of ’26. We will launch again in ’27.”
O próximo voo corresponderá à Artemis III, uma missão tripulada em órbita baixa da Terra voltada para testar procedimentos de acoplagem entre a cápsula Orion da Nasa e os módulos lunares privados do programa — a Starship, da SpaceX, e o Blue Moon, da Blue Origin.
“We need to continue to exercise those muscles”, declarou ao comentar sobre as decolagens do SLS. “And, honestly, once a year isn’t great, either. I mean, I don’t think we’re going to get back to the early [space] shuttle days, you know, four missions a year. I don’t think we’re going to get back to where we were with Apollo, but once a year is the minimum … I would testify that to Congress in this role years down the road.”
“If NASA is going to be doing deep-space missions, complicated missions, [we should] launch at least once a year and get as much out of it as you can for taking the risk and spending the taxpayer dollars and building towards something greater”, complementou Isaacman. “That’s what we’re doing with Artemis III, and that’s what’s going to better prepare us for Artemis IV.”
A nova corrida espacial
Para superar os desafios que antecedem a Artemis III e o pouso tripulado da Artemis IV, programado para 2028, a agência não se apoia apenas nas lições do programa Apollo. Segundo o administrador, o foco atual reside na vasta experiência e no talento internos da instituição.
“Artemis II is very different from Apollo 8, and Artemis III will be very different from Apollo 9”, analisou. “Our approach is not exactly the same as it was … But what is the same right now? The spirit, the energy, the potential within NASA. The talent of the workforce and industry is no different than the 1960s.”
Contudo, há um paralelo evidente com os anos do projeto Apollo: a presença de um rival na disputa lunar. Se no passado o concorrente era a União Soviética, hoje os Estados Unidos disputam espaço diretamente com a China.
“It is a real space race”, definiu Isaacman. Contudo, ele ponderou: “this one is very different than the first one.”
“Everything is closer than it was, not just in space. I mean, we had the edge in computing [and] every one of the technology domains during the Cold War. Our capabilities were better by a mile”, ponderou. “[But with] China, it’s not [like that]. They’re very close.”
Enquanto a meta americana aponta para um pouso lunar no final de 2028, a China projeta sua chegada para o encerramento de 2029. “We’re saying we’re going to land on the moon at the end of 2028. China is saying by the end of 2029”, relatou o chefe da Nasa. “And it’s like, Well, are they going to pull it off? Yes, they will. They’ve showcased their landers, their rovers, their suits, two-launch architecture with built-in reusability.”
Diante desse cenário, a ameaça chinesa é tratada com extrema seriedade. “The consequence of getting this wrong, I’m telling you — it’s going to be felt around the world”, alertou. “It will call everything into question.”
“Should I be using American superintelligence or AI? Should I be doing Chinese? Should I be buying their computers? Should I be [buying] ours? Buying their cars, their airplanes, their ships? Whose security guarantees to trust?” questionou o administrador. “I think the implications are pretty severe, which is why we’re taking it so seriously and putting such extreme focus on the mission right now. But we have that playbook of success, and I think we will prevail.”
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