Part 4 of the series discussed how there needs to be a transfer point in LLO.

This series looks at the 6 key things needed to achieve such a mission.

The 6 Key Needs for Continuous Moon Mission

What does an ongoing Moon mission need?

1. People need to be ferried between Earth and LEO
2. People need to be ferried between LEO and Low Lunar Orbit (LLO)
3. People need to shuttle between LLO and Moon's surface
4. There needs to be a transfer point in LLO
5. Supplies and equipment need to be ferried to the Moon surface from Earth
6. A Moonbase on the surface needs to be established and continuously expanded (at least for a number of years)

This post looks at need 5.

5. Supplies and equipment need to be ferried to the Moon surface from Earth

As the number of people coming and going to the Moon increases, and true Moon habitation begins, there will be an ever increasing need for supplies and equipment.

Rather than only using the human transfer ships, supply runs to the Moon could be better served with Lunar Direct Missions.

A block 3 Starship will be capable of transporting up to 200 tons of cargo to the Moon. Even if it was only 100 tons, it is not ideal to transfer this from ship-to-ship in space.

While transfer is easier to achieve in zero-G, it is still a time consuming and risky process considering it is not really needed.

Lunar Supply Starships do not need to be crewed or have life support. This means they can carry more cargo mass.

They still need a lift/cargo crane installed so they can either be robotically or manually unloaded on site.

Launching from Earth with 100+ tons, refueling in LEO, then flying directly to the Moon and landing is a much simpler mission profile. It also needs less infrastructure to achieve.

One fully loaded Starship can deliver more cargo than the total mass of all human-made objects currently on the Moon.

There are companies working on technology to create landing pads using regolith on the Moon. Having landing pads removes the need for the Drago engines for landing, although they still may be kept for fine control.

In the early stages after the initial HLS flights, one or two cargo supply ships to the Moon every month will still be hard to keep up with, but would dramatically speed up development.

Being able to produce enough cargo will be the problem, but a very nice one to have.

Next . . .

Part 6, the final in the The Continuous Moon Mission series, looks at key need 6, A Moonbase on the surface