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Access to LEO is vital to the lunar community.
We applaud and enthusiastically support the efforts of organizations such as the Space Access Society to lower the cost of getting people and cargo to orbit; however, this goal is not a direct part of the activities of the Artemis Project. Many people are already working on the problem of getting us to Earth orbit, so we would only be adding confusion and dividing our forces if we duplicated those efforts.
Our long-range plans for development of a permanent, self-supporting lunar community will not work unless the cost of getting off the planet is reduced dramatically, but with several organizations and many, many companies working the problem, we are content to plan our program so that the Artemis Project will be a consumer of these launch services rather than a supplier.
We are creating market demand for low-cost access to space.
Instead, the Artemis Project seeks to create a market for these low-cost launchers. We are working on the demand side of the financial equation, rather than the supply side.
Low-cost launchers will happen when there's a demand for them. Space access fans should applaud the Artemis Project because it multiplies the demand for launch to low Earth orbit to an enormous degree. For decades to come, Earth will be the primary source of many of the goods that people will want to have on the moon, so we need an affordable cargo system; and of course lunar tourism and settlement won't happen unless we have affordable transportation for people to and from the moon.
For another essay on this subject, see the Frequently Asked Question, Does the Artemis Project support low-cost access to space?
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