Washington – NASA may be going to the same old moon with a ship that looks a lot like a 1960s Apollo capsule, but the space agency said Monday that it’s going to do something dramatically different this time: Stay there.
Unveiling the agency’s bold plan for a return to the moon, NASA said it will establish an international base camp on one of the moon’s poles, permanently staffing it by 2024, four years after astronauts land there.
It is a sweeping departure from the Apollo moon missions of the 1960s and represents a new phase of space exploration after space shuttles are retired in 2010.
NASA chose a “lunar outpost” over the short expeditions of the ’60s. Apollo flights were all around the middle area of the moon, but NASA decided to go to the moon’s poles because they are best for longer-term settlements. And this time NASA is welcoming other nations on its journey.
The more likely of the two lunar destinations is the moon’s south pole because it’s sunlit three-quarters of the time. That offers a better locale for solar power, plus the site has possible resources to mine nearby, said associate deputy administrator Doug Cooke.
To get to the moon, NASA will use two vehicles – the Orion exploration vehicle and an attached all-purpose lunar lander that could touch down anywhere and be the beginnings of a base camp, said exploration chief Scott Horowitz.
He likens the lander to a pickup truck.
“You can put whatever you want in the back. You can take it to wherever you want. So you can deliver cargo, crew, do it robotically, do it with humans on board. These are the types of things we’re looking for in this system,” Horowitz said at a news conference in Houston.
Last year, NASA said it would cost $104 billion just to get back to the moon for its first trip, but NASA officials declined on Monday to estimate the larger costs of a permanent lunar program.
They just said it would stay within NASA’s budget.
For four years, the lunar base won’t be built up enough for long visits, so astronauts will spend only a week at a time. But after that, NASA envisions people living on the moon for six-month stints.
Going with a permanent base was an outcome of NASA asking itself and more than 1,000 experts from 14 nations two questions: “Why are we returning to the moon, and what do we plan to do when we get there?”
Two key themes, according to NASA, were to prepare for future exploration, with Mars the next stop, and expansion of human civilization.
