New NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman says the US space agency will pivot from launching an orbiting lunar station to constructing a base on the moon’s surface. It comes amid a renewed moon race with Russia and China.
NASA will cancel plans to deploy a space station in lunar orbit, instead focusing on the construction of a roughly $20 billion (about €17.25 billion) base on the moon’s surface over the next seven years.
New NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, who was sworn in at the US space agency in December, made the announcement at the opening of an all-day event at NASA’s Washington headquarters.
He outlined a raft of changes to the agency’s flagship Artemis II moon project, which has encountered a series of setbacks in recent months amid a 21st century race with Russia and China to return to the Earth’s satellite.
After a series of delays, NASA repositioned its Space Launch System rocket on the launchpad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida a few days ago, hoping to launch its first flight orbiting the moon soon, potentially in early April.
What did NASA’s Isaacman say about the changes?
The Lunar Gateway station, much of which has already been built by contractors Northrop Grumman and Lanteris Space Systems, was meant to be a space station that would orbit the moon. The original plan was for this to serve as the base of operations for astronauts to use landers to shuttle to and from the surface.
“It should not really surprise anyone that we are pausing Gateway in its current form and focusing on infrastructure that supports sustained operations on the lunar surface,” Isaacman told delegates at the event, after criticism of the project as either waseteful or a distraction from other lunar ambitions.
“Despite some of the very real hardware and schedule challenges, we can repurpose equipment and international partner commitments to support surface and other program objectives,” the 43-year-old entrepreneur with close ties to SpaceX founder Elon Musk said.
What rekindled NASA’s interest in the moon?
Isaacman said the core target of the Artemis II mission, a return to the moon’s surface by 2028, would remain unchanged despite his major shakeup of the details. He said the agency would also shift its flight plans to incorporate a test mission prior to an eventual lunar landing to improve “muscle memory.”
The rush to return to the satellite first reached by the Apollo 11 mission in July 1969 comes as China works on its own moon mission, aiming to land on the orb in 2030. China and Russia have also touted plans to build a nuclear power plant on the orb’s south pole, as they aim to develop their International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) by 2036.
Returning to the moon is also billed by the US as a stepping stone towards an eventual mission to Mars, long a stated goal of Musk’s.
Source : https://www.dw.com/en/nasa-plans-moon-base-instead-of-orbital-lunar-station/a-76510267
