 NASA has announced it plans to build a permanently occupied base on the moon, most likely at the lunar north pole.The habitat will serve as a science outpost as well as a testbed for technologies needed for future travel to Mars and construction will follow a series of flights to the moon scheduled to begin by 2020.NASA’s associate administrator for exploration, Scott “Doc” Horowitz, told reporters of the plans in a teleconference from the Johnson Space Centre in Houston on Monday.”We’re going for a base on the moon,” he said.Plans for what the base will look like and what astronauts would do there are yet to be determined, and NASA has not projected a date when the base would go into operation.The moon’s polar sites are preferred to equatorial regions because of more moderate temperatures and longer periods of sunlight, which is critical for the solar-powered electrical systems NASA plans to develop.Eventually, nuclear power may be used to augment or replace the solar energy systems.Scientists also suspect the poles have resources such as hydrogen, ice and other materials that could be used for life support.
NASA deputy administrator Shana Dale says the plans are exciting.
“We don’t know as much about the polar regions,” she said.
The United States had already announced plans to develop new spacecraft to travel to the moon and land on its surface for the first time since the last Apollo flight there in 1972.
It also plans to provide a communications system linking Earth and the moon, but NASA does not plan to go to the moon alone.
The United States will look for international and commercial partners to share the expense and possibly provide components such as additional power systems, living quarters and resources for surface travel on the moon.
NASA is not expecting a budget increase to pay for the program.
Rather, it will transition funds currently being used to support the space shuttle into the moon exploration program as the shuttle fleet is phased out.
The shuttles are set to retire in 2010 and by that time NASA plans to have finished building the space station, leaving the moon initiative as a successor to both programs.
NASA receives about $16 billion a year.
Countries that already have been working with NASA to develop its so-called Global Exploration Strategy are Australia, Canada, China, Europe, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, India, Italy, Japan, Russia, South Korea and Ukraine.
This article is from abc.net.au
That is pretty incredible, to think we are close to actually building a base on the moon. 2020 is a long time away though, we’ll see what happens! |
