{"id":18778,"date":"2017-10-06T22:34:55","date_gmt":"2017-10-06T14:34:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/nasa-could-go-back-to-the-future-and-revive-moon-base-plans-from-a-decade-ago\/"},"modified":"2017-10-06T22:34:55","modified_gmt":"2017-10-06T14:34:55","slug":"nasa-could-go-back-to-the-future-and-revive-moon-base-plans-from-a-decade-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/nasa-could-go-back-to-the-future-and-revive-moon-base-plans-from-a-decade-ago\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA could go back to the future and revive moon base plans from a decade ago"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_367596\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-367596\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-367596\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/171006-moonbase-630x362.jpg\" alt=\"Moon base\" width=\"630\" height=\"362\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/171006-moonbase-630x362.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/171006-moonbase-768x441.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/171006-moonbase-1260x724.jpg 1260w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-367596\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artist\u2019s conception from 2007 shows astronauts walking up to an early lunar habitat. (NASA Illustration)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In the wake of the National Space Council\u2019s first meeting, NASA says it has been told to draw up plans to send humans to the moon \u201cfor long-term exploration and utilization,\u201d followed by trips to Mars and other interplanetary destinations.<\/p>\n<p>That means moon bases are back in style.<\/p>\n<p>But what kind of moon base? NASA\u2019s current vision for space exploration goes only so far as to consider putting a Deep Space Gateway in lunar orbit. It\u2019s basically a space station that could serve as a platform for monitoring robotic operations on the lunar surface, or for sending astronauts onward to Mars.<\/p>\n<p>During the Obama administration, NASA saw lunar settlement as the purview of commercial ventures and international partners. The European Space Agency, for example, has its own vision for a \u201cMoon Village,\u201d and Bigelow Aerospace has floated the idea of putting expandable commercial habitats on the moon.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"ESA Euronews: Building a Moon base\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/E-lq2ErdlXY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Now NASA will include moon base concepts in its own blueprint for beyond-Earth exploration. Fortunately, this isn\u2019t virgin territory: NASA could turn to the work it was doing a decade ago, the last time moon bases were in style.<\/p>\n<p>Back then, the space agency was working out the plans for lunar settlements that would be built once Americans returned to the moon as part of Project Constellation, backed by President George W. Bush.<\/p>\n<p>Boeing and Lockheed Martin were among the potential industry partners, along with Caterpillar (for dirt-moving), Canada\u2019s Norcat (for lunar mining) and ILC Dover (which was vying with Bigelow Aerospace to build habitats).<\/p>\n<p>The favored site was to be the moon\u2019s south polar region&nbsp;\u2014 where the rims of craters could provide nearly constant views of Earth, and where the permanently shadowed bottoms of craters could harbor water ice. That ice could be used to produce drinkable water, breathable oxygen and rocket propellants.<\/p>\n<p>At the time, NASA envisioned starting the construction job sometime after Constellation\u2019s first moon landing in 2020, and having a habitat ready for six-month tours of duty by 2025.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe intent is to lay down the foundation for a permanent presence on the moon by whoever wants to be there,\u201d Boeing\u2019s Dallas Bienhoff told me back then.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"How Project Constellation would have taken Man back to the Moon\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rVpfAVmCa4Y?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>So what happened? The bottom line, that\u2019s what. The cost estimate for Project Constellation rose beyond $100 billion, and that didn\u2019t even include the cost of building the moon base. In 2009, a White House panel of independent space experts determined that the plan couldn\u2019t be done&nbsp;on NASA\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n<p>Within a year, Constellation was canceled. Instead, President Barack Obama turned NASA\u2019s attention toward sending astronauts to a near-Earth asteroid, and then making the giant leap to Mars.<\/p>\n<p>Now, NASA is forgetting about the asteroid and going back to the back-to-the-moon aspirations, as part of a grander plan to expand human presence in the solar system under American leadership. It\u2019s way too early, however, to come up with a price tag for moon missions, let alone a moon base.<\/p>\n<p>One big factor has changed in the past decade: Back then, SpaceX was struggling to get into the launch industry, and then-millionaire Elon Musk was flirting with bankruptcy.<\/p>\n<p>Today, business is booming at SpaceX, due to its low-cost approach to rocket launches and retrievals. Musk\u2019s net worth has topped $20 billion, and he\u2019s talking up monster missions to the moon and Mars, leading to Red Planet settlement within the next decade.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_365801\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-365801\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-365801\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/170928-spacex-moon-630x386.jpg\" alt=\"SpaceX moon base\" width=\"630\" height=\"386\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/170928-spacex-moon-630x386.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/170928-spacex-moon-768x470.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/170928-spacex-moon.jpg 991w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-365801\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artist\u2019s conception shows the SpaceX vision for \u201cMoon Base Alpha.\u201d (Elon Musk via Instagram)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>SpaceX is increasing the competitive pressure on Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Orbital ATK and Northrop Grumman, NASA\u2019s longstanding partners in the space exploration business.<\/p>\n<p>The cost equation for moon trips, and for a moon base, may well look better now than it did in 2007, thanks in part to Musk and SpaceX. Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin space venture could eventually come in for some of the credit as well if its Blue Moon lunar lander&nbsp;gets off the ground.<\/p>\n<p>However, no plan for space exploration is exempt from Grissom\u2019s Law, which was attributed to Mercury astronaut Gus Grissom in \u201cThe Right Stuff,\u201d Tom Wolfe\u2019s novel about the early space effort: \u201cNo bucks, no Buck Rogers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Once the cost estimate for building a moon base gets out there, will the White House, Congress and the electorate go along? Or will the idea give rise to political scoffing and late-night lampooning, as it did when Newt Gingrich (who\u2019s also apparently back in style) made his moon base suggestion during the 2012 presidential campaign?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An artist\u2019s conception from 2007 shows astronauts walking up to an early lunar habitat. (NASA Illustration) In the wake of the National Space Council\u2019s first meeting, NASA says it has been told to draw up plans to send humans to the moon \u201cfor long-term exploration and utilization,\u201d followed by trips to Mars and other interplanetary [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1508,625,4958,190,4849],"class_list":["post-18778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-blue-moon","tag-moon","tag-moon-village","tag-nasa","tag-space-exploration"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18778"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18778\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}