NASA plans to accomplish the near-impossible by returning to the moon before the end of President Donald Trump’s term, according to NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman.
This week, NASA announced a phased plan for building a “sustained lunar presence,” with the ultimate goal of building a $20 billion moon base.
Phase 1 is called “Build, Test, Learn” and includes sending equipment and technology, like rovers, to the moon using commercial services.
Phase 2 seeks to “establish early infrastructure” by moving toward “semi-habitable infrastructure and regular logistics.”
Phase 3 will deploy cargo-capable human landing systems, “marking the transition from periodic expeditions to a permanent lunar base.”
History of moon base attempts
From 2000 to 2010, NASA had one serious moon base attempt: the Constellation program.
Unfortunately, it never really took off due to insufficient funding.
From 2010 to 2017, NASA shifted gears toward Mars, effectively suspending all efforts to land on the moon.
The agency also made plans (the Asteroid Redirect Mission) to grab a boulder off an asteroid and study it while in lunar orbit.
Then in 2019, the Artemis Program was established with the goal of a permanent moon base camp at the South Pole, due to nearby water ice.
A critical piece of this program was the Lunar Gateway, a small space station in lunar orbit that would essentially be a “gas station” for astronauts.
This week’s announcement shows that officials are opting to skip this step and focus on building permanent infrastructure directly on the moon instead.
Artemis II, a test flight around the moon, is scheduled to launch on April 1. The mission will help “lay the groundwork for future crewed Artemis missions,” according to NASA.
Harnessing collective resources will be critical
Carlos Garcia-Galan, the new moon base manager, emphasized that successfully establishing a lunar outpost will require the agency to coordinate all efforts toward this objective.
“One of the things that we talked about today is bringing the entire NASA might and resources to bear on this,” Garcia-Galan told Ars Technica.
“We’re going to be working with all the programs and projects that are doing something related to lunar exploration. We’re all trying to do the same thing,” he continued.
NASA said in a news release that the changes announced on Tuesday will be implemented in the coming months.