September 20, 2005

SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS:

Back to Moon via 'Apollo on Steroids': NASA's $104-billion plan to revive manned lunar missions is seen as a step toward Mars trip. (Peter Pae, September 20, 2005, LA Times)

NASA unveiled a 13-year, $104-billion blueprint Monday for sending humans back to the moon as early as 2018, using a modified space shuttle rocket to propel an Apollo-like capsule into space.

Analysts said the design was decidedly retro, harking back more than three decades to the Cold War's moon race.

But they said the new design was safer and more realistic than the current space shuttle, which is scheduled to be retired in 2010 after nearly 25 years of service and two disastrous shuttle losses.

"Think Apollo on steroids," NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin said during a news conference at the agency headquarters in Washington.

The blueprint unveiled Monday is part of a broader initiative launched by President Bush 18 months ago, in which he called for returning humans to the moon as a steppingstone to a manned mission to Mars, perhaps as early as 2020.

The new capsule, known as the crew exploration vehicle, would be significantly larger than the cramped Apollo capsule, with seating for up to six astronauts instead of three.

Due to launch in 2012, it would initially be used to resupply and transfer International Space Station crews after the shuttle is retired, NASA officials said.


We were none too quick to realize the shuttle was a dead end, huh?

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 20, 2005 12:00 AM
Comments

So's the moon.

Posted by: Brandon at September 20, 2005 9:26 AM

I'm stoked!

Posted by: RC at September 20, 2005 9:45 AM

Not the moon, just the Project Apollo type ways to get there.

And if the shuttle was the tragedy, then this will be the farce, right?

Posted by: Raoul Ortega at September 20, 2005 12:12 PM

Any non-nuclear space propulsion system is just plain bonkers.

Posted by: b at September 20, 2005 12:47 PM

I think NASA is really missing something here. If they sell this as "another Apollo program," lots of people are going to say "Why bother? We went there before, then we left." This program should be to set up a permanent Moon base: back to the Moon, but this time for keeps.

Of course, my ideal space program would be to just give NASA's budget to Burt Rutan and tell him we want affordable space access and permanent Moon and Mars colonies, and then get out of his way.

Posted by: PapayaSF at September 20, 2005 1:14 PM

Papaya--I believe that a permanent base is the planned next step, as a launching pad for a Mars mission.

Posted by: Timothy at September 20, 2005 1:38 PM

Timothy: My point is that if a permanent Moon base is planned, it sure wasn't mentioned in that article. We get "Apollo on steroids" and staying on the Moon for "up to seven days." This just isn't exciting enough to generate the public support it needs.

Posted by: PapayaSF at September 20, 2005 6:03 PM

Space exploration only serves to reinforce heretical notions of a non-geocentric universe.

Posted by: carter at September 20, 2005 6:31 PM

It's a remarkably stupid government program even for the federal government. You want to see a permanent base on the Moon? Take all that money and promise 1/10 of it per year for up to ten years as rent on a Moon base. It'd be running well before 2012, which is when NASA would finally get around to its first launch.

Which raise a question for Mr. Judd: Isn't this kind of grand government scheme exactly the opposite of the kind of Ownership Society President Bush is supposedly building?

Posted by: Annoying Old Guy at September 21, 2005 4:11 PM
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