“Return to the Moon” has been seen as an important symbol of America’s overall strength. The new head of NASA announced ambitious space goals on the same day, CNN said Wednesday, including the suspension of international cooperation, “Gateway” lunar orbital space station program, to focus resources on the re-planning of the“Moon Base” program. U. S. Media generally believe that, according to the goal, NASA’s Moon program in a short period of time to make major adjustments, whether it can be achieved on schedule is uncertain.
NASA’s ‘Moon base’ concept
Stopping the moon space station
CNN said that while NASA has long worked to establish a settlement on the moon where astronauts can live and work permanently, Isaacman’s new plan provides the first timeline and road map for such work.
Isaac Mann plans to build a Moon base over the next 10 years and has unveiled a $30 billion plan to do so, Scientific American said Thursday, to establish a permanent human settlement at the Moon’s South Pole by 2036. Dozens of unmanned and manned missions will land on the moon over the next decade and the long-planned“Gateway” lunar orbiting space station will be effectively cancelled under a major overhaul of NASA’s lunar programme.
The Gateway station was originally one of the centerpieces of the U. S. Artemis Moon program, which aimed to build a small space station to orbit the Moon. As originally planned, the gateway will act as a“Deep space exploration relay station”: astronauts will travel to the gateway aboard the Orion spacecraft, it will then transfer to a lander designed specifically for landing on the Moon’s surface; after the mission is completed, the lander will return to the Gateway station, and the astronauts will transfer to Orion for return to Earth. This greatly improves efficiency and flexibility by eliminating the need to re-start from Earth every time you land on the Moon. In the grander scheme of things, the gateway is also seen as a key outpost and staging post for humans on their way to Mars.
The“Gateway” lunar space station was originally a central pillar of the United States’ efforts to recruit allies to participate in the Moon program. It already has the participation and investment of the European Space Agency, Japan, Canada, and the United Arab Emirates. “After abandoning the ‘gateway’ space station, some of the hardware and facilities developed for it could be used directly to support near-term exploration goals and lunar base missions focused on the Moon’s surface,” said Carlos Garcia-garland, NASA’s Lunar Base Program Manager. But the program, which allies saw as a long-term commitment and had been in operation for years, was halted, inevitably, it will affect America’s credibility as a“Reliable partner”.
Among the new plans unveiled by Isaacman is the planned transition from the International Space Station to a commercial outpost in low-earth orbit. The Extended International Space Station is scheduled to retire between 2030 and 2031. Dana Weigel, NASA’s International Space Station Program Manager, says NASA will try to ensure that commercial alternatives are found before the station shuts down, but acknowledges that, the market for space services such as research, manufacturing and space tourism, which is dominated by private companies, is maturing much more slowly than expected.
Previous recipients of funding for NASA’s space station include axiom space and the S.T.A.R. Labs Space Station, a joint venture between Voyager and Airbus, and the orbital rocks space station, led by Blue Origin. Under the new strategy, these companies and other potential players will be asked to come up with new solutions to support NASA’s efforts to procure core modules and develop new ones that will be available when the International Space Station retires, to operate as stand-alone commercial outposts after the ISS is decommissioned.
Accelerated launch of lunar probe
Under the new plan, NASA will rely on projects such as commercial lunar payload services to increase the frequency of missions and turn the moon from a“Low-frequency exploration object” to a“High-frequency scenario,” according to the Scientific American website. In the future, NASA will build a“Lunar base” in three phases: the first phase to launch a lunar rover and carry out technical verification; the second phase to build semi-livable facilities to support astronauts to stay regularly; The third phase will be a long-term lunar base.
Isaacman said NASA would significantly increase the number of unmanned landers carrying cargo and scientific instruments to the moon, with the goal of launching them“Once a month.”. Since January 2024, four lunar landers have been launched on NASA-backed commercial missions to the moon, with mixed success, CNN said.
The accelerated lunar probe mission will be coordinated with NASA’s Artemis Manned Moon landing program. “Our goal this time is not flags and footprints,” Isaacman said. “It’s to stay on the Moon.” He stressed that NASA will focus its manned lunar landing efforts on building a lunar base, following the model of the Apollo Moon landing program, complete a full test mission before sending a crew. The ultimate goal is to explore the Moon’s South Pole, where water ice and other valuable resources are thought to lie in the shadow of craters and“The U.S. will never give up on the Moon again.”.
NASA currently plans to launch the Artemis 2 mission on April 1, which will send four astronauts into lunar orbit, testing the reliability of the Space Launch System (SLS-RRB- rocket and Orionrion spacecraft. NASA also recently announced changes to its plans for subsequent missions to the Moon: the 2027 Artemis 3 mission is expected to test the Orion spacecraft’s ability to dock with two lunar landers developed by SpaceX and Blue Origin. If all goes well, the Artemis 4 mission will carry American astronauts back to the moon in more than half a century.
Garcia said the newly announced lunar mission will accelerate and expand the frequency of Artemis missions, which will involve launching dozens of probes and power, communications and habitation modules in three phases, the goal is to build long-lived“Moon bases”. The base will need a source of radionuclide power and eventually a nuclear reactor so that astronauts can survive the long hours of polar night at the Moon’s South Pole.
But the project faces many challenges. The main challenge for this“Very ambitious program,” according to Scientific American’s web site, is“The number of Moon landings.”. The plan calls for more than 20 lunar launches by 2028, including the Artemis 4 mission, which will land a man on the Moon. Isaacman criticized that the Orion manned spacecraft and SLS rockets previously built by industry partners such as Lockheed Martin and Boeing were billions of dollars over budget and years behind schedule, has drawn harsh criticism from the outside world. Isaacman said he had made it clear to commercial space companies and NASA contractors that he did not want to repeat the mistakes of the past. Blue Origin and SpaceX are also competing to develop the lunar lander needed to take astronauts from the Orion spacecraft to the lunar surface, but recent reports have warned that progress is behind schedule, could lead to a NASA moon landing beyond 2028.
Initiating nuclear propulsion probe
Casey Dreier, an expert with the us-based international organization The Planetary Society, said that the most noteworthy part of the new plan announced by Isaacman also includes NASA’s endorsement of nuclear energy technology, whether it’s for a moon base or a potential future mission to Mars. “Nuclear propulsion technology will create tremendous opportunities for the use of energy in a variety of scientific missions and manned missions to the Solar System.”.
He plans to equip the Freedom Rover with new nuclear propulsion technology for the first time on a mission to Mars in 2028 so it can carry a larger payload more efficiently, CNN said. The probe’s propulsion system is adapted from the power and propulsion components originally developed for the“Gateway” space station program. It uses electricity generated by a small nuclear reactor to drive the ion thruster, it generates sustained thrust by ejecting charged particles. After reaching Mars, “Freedom” in the descent of the Martian atmosphere during the release of three advanced“Mars helicopter” to explore the rugged terrain of Mars. In addition, freedom’s test results on nuclear propulsion technology will also inform NASA’s plans to build a nuclear reactor on the Moon’s surface that could power a lunar base at night.
Isaacman is an active supporter of nuclear propulsion technology, which is considered ideal for deep space missions. But the technology faces complex design challenges and could be costly, along with the risk of launching a nuclear device into space, CNN said.