Space
A new NASA-funded study suggests we could get back to the Moon much sooner, and much cheaper than previous estimates. The study also lays out a plan for permanent bases as jumping-off points for future missions to Mars and beyond. |
A newly released NASA-funded study suggests that it may be possible to send humans to the Moon by 2025 at a cost under $10 billion.
The report suggests a timeline of:2017 – Robots return to moon2018 – Rovers search for hydrogen at lunar poles2019 – Prospecting begins, mining the Moon’s water for propellant2021 – Robots construct permanent base in preparation for human landing |
The heyday of the race to moon, with unbridled enthusiasm and hope for the future. Despite this, Post-Apollo Moon interest has been incredibly absent as the primary functional drivers were not apparent and costs were projected to be soaring above and beyond $100 billion.
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“In Apollo, we didn’t know what we didn’t know. Now, returning to the Moon is relatively easy and affordable, and on path to Mars,” said Tom Moser, former NASA Deputy Associate Administrator for Human Spaceflight and Space Station
The plan includes building permanent human bases at the poles of the Moon so that astronauts can harvest the Moon’s water for propellant, which would be transported into the lunar orbit for use by other spacecraft.
Another massive benefit of using Moon water as fuel: it would also reduce the cost of future Mars missions by more than $10 billion per year.
“We want to kill the idea in this report that it costs hundreds of billions of dollars to go back to the Moon,” says study lead Charles Miller.
NASA supports the study but it is still just a preliminary examination. Time will tell if the political will to colonize the moon, and beyond is behind such an effort.
The US space agency is not the only body looking at the Moon with a fresh outlook.
The ESA’s Director General, Johann-Dietrich Woerner, told the BBC recently that it’s time “to look to a future beyond the International Space Station;” He proposed a future that includes smaller spacecraft in low-Earth orbit for microgravity research” and “a 3D-printed moon village on the far side of the moon.”
Woerner suggests, the technology being investigated by NASA to construct a Mars base using a giant 3D printer would be better tried out on the moon first. Learning to live on an alien world is going to be tough – but the challenge would be a lot easier, particularly in an emergency, if the extraterrestrial community is only four days away from Earth rather than six months.
"The far side of the Moon, which we can't see from Earth, would provide the best conditions for research where telescopes could be set up to have an undisturbed view into the depths of space," said Worner. "At the start construction materials and food would take priority. Later it would be possible to produce water from hydrogen. Crops could be grown in greenhouses. Researchers would remain for several months at a time."
Another massive benefit of using Moon water as fuel: it would also reduce the cost of future Mars missions by more than $10 billion per year.
“We want to kill the idea in this report that it costs hundreds of billions of dollars to go back to the Moon,” says study lead Charles Miller.
NASA supports the study but it is still just a preliminary examination. Time will tell if the political will to colonize the moon, and beyond is behind such an effort.
The US space agency is not the only body looking at the Moon with a fresh outlook.
The ESA’s Director General, Johann-Dietrich Woerner, told the BBC recently that it’s time “to look to a future beyond the International Space Station;” He proposed a future that includes smaller spacecraft in low-Earth orbit for microgravity research” and “a 3D-printed moon village on the far side of the moon.”
Woerner suggests, the technology being investigated by NASA to construct a Mars base using a giant 3D printer would be better tried out on the moon first. Learning to live on an alien world is going to be tough – but the challenge would be a lot easier, particularly in an emergency, if the extraterrestrial community is only four days away from Earth rather than six months.
"The far side of the Moon, which we can't see from Earth, would provide the best conditions for research where telescopes could be set up to have an undisturbed view into the depths of space," said Worner. "At the start construction materials and food would take priority. Later it would be possible to produce water from hydrogen. Crops could be grown in greenhouses. Researchers would remain for several months at a time."
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