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.
The more likely of the two lunar destinations is the moon’s south pole because it is sunlit for three-quarters of the time. That offers a better locale for solar power, plus the site has possible resources to mine nearby, NASA associate deputy administrator Doug Cooke said.
“This is not your father’s Apollo,” said John Logsdon, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University. “I think it’s the only way to sustain something like this over decades. This is not a flag-and-footprints. This is the idea of starting an outward movement that includes long stays on the moon.”
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 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.
In 2004, the year after the shuttle Columbia accident that killed seven astronauts, President Bush announced a plan to return astronauts to the moon by 2020, and a later mission to Mars. The 16-year-long venture to the moon will take twice as long as NASA’s first trip there took in planning.
Last year, NASA said it would cost $104 billion just to get back to the moon for its first trip, but on Monday NASA officials declined to estimate the larger costs of a permanent lunar program. They just said it would stay within NASA’s budget.
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