‘We’re returning to the moon - to stay’ says NASA
NASA has revealed plans to take America back to the moon - but will rely on private firms to run the missions. The space agency plans to work with nine private firms, ranging from small startups to giants like Lockheed Martin, to develop robotic landers and systems to mine the natural resources on the moon.
This will help develop the technology need for eventual manned missions, and NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine pledged to have a manned lunar base within a decade.
The first new lunar missions could blast off as early next year.
‘ We’re building the next chapter of American exploration, returning to the moon - to stay,’ the space agency announced. ‘ I think that it is possible we can have a presence on the moon with humans within a decade,’ said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.
‘We’re going to utilize the resources of the moon, and take this all the way to Mars. Bridenstine, a former U. S. Navy fighter pilot and Oklahoma congressman tapped by President Donald Trump in April as NASA chief, said the plan was part of Trump’s Space Directive-1 policy.
‘Today’s announcement marks tangible progress in America’s return to the Moon’s surface to stay,’ he said.
He said future bases would be international, and that he hoped the US would lead the plans
‘ The innovation of America’s aerospace companies, wedded with our big goals in science and human exploration, are going to help us achieve amazing things on the Moon and feed forward to Mars.’
NASA plans to create a commercial marketplace called the Commercial Lunar Payload Services Program (CLIPS) to develop technology that will eventually establish a continuous Moon presence. A maximum of $2.6bn is earmarked for the project, and NASA will also buy space on commercial robotic landers, along with other customers, to deliver payloads to the lunar surface.
‘We want multiple providers that are competing on cost and innovation, Bridenstine said.
He hit back at claims the US has promised to go back to the moon before.
‘This time, we’re no kidding going to go,’ he told reporters. ‘ We’re taking shots at goal here, we want it to happen fast.’ He also outlined how the eventual manned missions will work.
‘ Right now we’re building a space station, we call it ‘ Gateway,’ that’s going to be in orbit around the moon - think of it as a reusable command module where we can have human presence in orbit around the moon,’ Bridenstine said.
‘ From there we want reusable landers that go back and forth to the surface of the moon,’ Bridenstine told Hill TV earlier.
‘We think we can achieve this in about 10 years, the idea being prove the capability, retire the risk, prove the human physiology and then go on to Mars.’
Astronaut Stan Love revealed NASA was developing systems for astronaut training. ‘We’re developing technology for when it’s time to begin to learn to walk on the moon again,’ he said.
‘ When I was a little kid, there were humans on the surface of the moon,’ said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, who is leading the project. ‘ On the moon, there are precious resources, and we want to learn how to use them, and to go back with humans to explore how we can use them.’
Zurbuchen said the firms will compete to complete tasks NASA sets, but will be free to work out how they get there
‘ The moon represents a proving ground, it’s the way we can reduce risk, we can prove technology, we can prove human physiology, we can develop the capabilities to utilize the resources of the moon to survive on the surface of the moon and then we take all of those capabilities and we replicate them at Mars,’ Bridestine told Hill TV.
The official announcement will come at 2 pm, NASA said, adding ‘ Working with U.S. companies is the next step to achieving log-term scientific study and human exploration of the moon’
‘ Working with US companies is the next step to achieving long-term scientific study and human exploration of the moon and Mars,’ NASA said in a press release.
CLPS will encourage smaller companies to develop 1,100- to 2,200- pound robotic landers that can deliver NASA’s scientific payloads to the moon’s surface.
‘Using these services, the agency will accelerate a robotic return to Moon, with upcoming missions targeted for two to three years earlier than previously planned,’ NASA has previously said.
NASA intends to award multiple contracts for these services through the next decade, with contract missions to the lunar surface expected to begin as early as 2019, and with a company’s first delivery no later than Dec. 31, 2021.
‘We’ll draw on the interests and capabilities of U. S. industry and international partners as American innovation leads astronauts back to the Moon and to destinations farther into the solar system, including Mars,’ said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine when the project was first announced in May. ‘ We’ll leverage commercial capabilities for these small payload deliveries, and CLPS missions will play an important role in our expanding and sustainable lunar exploration strategy.’