NASA Plans Permanent Moon Base

News Type: Event — Seeded on Wed Dec 6, 2006 1:56 AM EST

Article Source: The New York Times

science, space, nasa, moon, houston, foreign-relations, johnson-space-center

NASA announced plans on Monday for a permanent base on the Moon, to be started soon after astronauts return there around 2020.

The agency's deputy administrator, Shana Dale, said the United States would develop rockets and spacecraft to get people to the Moon and establish a rudimentary base. There, other countries and commercial enterprises could expand the outpost to develop scientific and other interests, Ms. Dale said.

Ms. Dale and other officials of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said the agency envisioned a base at one of the lunar poles, to take advantage of the near-constant sunlight for solar power generation. It would have an "open architecture" design to which others could add the capabilities they want.

Scott Horowitz, NASA's associate administrator for exploration, said crews of four astronauts would make weeklong missions to the Moon starting around 2020.

Published to:

Jack Huang's Column, All of Newsvine
Groups: Newsvine Science
Regions: United States

What's this?

Who's leading the conversation?

This visualization below allows you to see the impact that each user has on the current conversation. The top row contains the group of users who have had the most impact, the 2nd row the group of users who have had the 2nd most impact (et cetera). Users with similar impact are grouped together, and the average score of the group is shown to the left of the group. The author of the article is also shown on the left, in their corresponding group. Each user's score is based on the number of comments the user has made plus the number of votes their comments have received. The scores are calculated relative one another, so while their absolute value is not particularly important, their relative difference does indicate a larger difference in impact on the conversation.

2.1

{"commentId":413376,"authorDomain":"sphinx"}

Jack Huang

While lofty aspirations for manned space travel are nice for bragging rights and public support, I don't see a Moon base as serving any real purpose.

For the next ten years, I don't see us coming close to scientifically exhausting the capabilities of much cheaper robotic exploration, requiring the massive upgrade to manned exploration.

{"commentId":413376,"threadId":"59169","contentId":"470511","authorDomain":"sphinx"}

#1 - Wed Dec 6, 2006 1:58 AM EST

{"commentId":413552,"authorDomain":"hodgie"}

K.Hodge

Well it requires the technical advances to actually construct a moon base, and provides a real life scenario where we would have to deal with all the problems of living on another planet without an atmosphere, oxygen, water, or food.

{"commentId":413552,"threadId":"59169","contentId":"470511","authorDomain":"hodgie"}

2 votes

#1.1 - Wed Dec 6, 2006 5:20 AM EST

{"canLink":false,"threadId":"59169","isPrivate":false}

	NASA Says It Will Set Up Polar Moon Camp	Associated Press	Mon Dec 4	19
	NASA Unveils Strategy for Return to the Moon	Space.com	Tue Dec 5	0

JACK HUANG

Backyard

NASA Plans Permanent Moon Base

Published to:

FUN STUFF:

COMPANY STUFF:

LEGAL STUFF: