Space agency Nasa recently unveiled plans to build a permanent base on the moon within 20 years that will allow humans to live there. The base will be used as a launching site for missions to Mars, as well as for analysis of the Earth from space.
”We’re going for a base on the moon,” said Scott Horowitz, Nasa associate administrator for exploration, at a press briefing in which he detailed plans for the first permanent human presence on an extraterrestrial body, 57 years after Apollo astronauts walked on the moon.
Nasa’s announcement is the latest step in the space agency’s plans to fulfil President George W Bush’s challenge to explore space. In 2004, he called for a return to the moon, followed by Mars expeditions. Last year Nasa gave details of the spacecraft it plans to use in the missions. The Orion exploration vehicle, shaped like the Apollo space capsules last used in 1972 but three times larger, will replace the space shuttle, while the two new Ares I rockets will blast the astronauts and equipment separately into space.
The exact design of the base has not yet been mapped out, but Nasa outlined scientific goals for the moon missions. The missions will, among other things, measure cosmic rays, hunt for exotic subatomic particles in space and look for asteroids on a collision course with Earth. A moon base could also be used as a platform for monitoring the Earth’s oceans and ice caps.
Nasa officials said the return to the moon would begin with robotic reconnaissance trips that would look for potential landing sites and areas with good natural resources.
By 2020, four-person crews will make week-long trips while power supplies, rovers and living quarters are built on the lunar surface. Once the base is completed in the mid-2020s, astronauts will stay for six months at a time to prepare for longer journeys to Mars. By the end of the decade, pressurised roving vehicles could take people on long exploratory trips across the lunar surface.
The moon’s polar regions are Nasa’s preferred landing sites because the temperature is moderate and there are longer periods of sunlight — critical for the solar-powered technologies planned by the agency. Nasa said nuclear power could eventually be used instead. The poles are also thought to be rich in resources such as hydrogen and ice, which could be used to support life.
Although Nasa gave no details of how much the moon base would cost, it is expected that the agency will fund its plans from its budget of $16-billion a year. Dale said, once the space shuttle was retired in 2010, Nasa would scale back its involvement in the international space station. Savings would be directed towards the lunar programme.
”The architectural work has resulted in an understanding of what is required to implement and enable critical exploration objectives,” said Doug Cooke, deputy associate administrator of Nasa’s exploration systems directorate. ”This is all important as we … better define the architecture and our various exploration roles in what is a very exciting future for the United States and the world.”
Nasa’s ideas are controversial: the lunar exploration plans have been criticised by many scientists for being too costly and at the mercy of political whims. If the climate turned against the agency at any point, many argue, the whole project could be scrapped.
To spread the risk, Nasa has left room for other countries to get involved. It will look for partners from the European Space Agency, India, China, Russia and South Korea to share the cost of developing components. — Â