On October 5th, 2017, US Vice President Mike Pence announced that NASA is going back to
the Moon.
He didn’t provide any other details, just some kind of moonward directed space exploration.
And it turns out they won’t be the only ones.
The Moon is going to be a busy busy place.
This probably didn’t come a surprise to anyone, but the US presidential administration
announced that they were throwing out the plans of the previous administration, and
forging forth in a new direction.
NASA won’t be visiting asteroids, retrieving samples, and working towards the human exploration
of Mars, instead they’ll be targeting the Moon.
Exactly how is still up in the air.
I’m sorry, I sound like a total killjoy here, but every time NASA has its plans wrenched
in a new direction, I get a little more exhausted.
But, this is the problem of giant, goals-based mission planning.
I’m still holding out for some capabilities-driven missions.
However, there are a total of 5 different groups targeting the human exploration of
the Moon.
Nobody near the Moon for almost 50 years, and suddenly everyone wants to visit.
Let’s get into the announcement.
On Wednesday, October 5th, Vice President Mike Pence addressed a crowd from the Smithsonian
National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va.
He used the Space Shuttle Discovery as a backdrop, and honestly, it looked pretty awesome.
Mental note, always give speeches in front of space shuttles if possible.
This was the first meeting of the newly reinstated National Space Council - a collection of government
officials, traditional space industry executives, and CEOs from the newer companies.
Here’s what he had to say:
“We will return NASA astronauts to the Moon — not only to leave behind footprints and
flags, but to build the foundation, we need to send Americans to Mars and beyond,”
Does this seem a little familiar?
The last time NASA was committed to going to the Moon was back in the administration
of George W. Bush.
Back then it was called the Constellation Program, and involved a heavy lift Ares 5
rocket for cargo and the smaller, human rated Ares 1 to carry the astronaut crew to orbit.
Under the Constellation Program, astronauts would use the new Ares rockets to fly to the
International Space Station, then back to the Moon, building the infrastructure for
future missions to Mars.
The program was officially cancelled in 2010, with NASA switching over to the Space Launch
System heavy lift rocket as a single vehicle that could carry both astronauts and cargo
into deep space.
Under that program, NASA was going to explore asteroids as a stepping stone to get to Mars,
even returning a space rock back to Earth orbit.
That led to the development of the Deep Space Gateway, as the next big project that NASA
would construct.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration canceled the asteroid mission, but didn’t
provide definitive plans for where NASA would go next.
Actually, we still don’t have definitive plans, but at least we know where NASA is
going next.
How will this impact NASA’s current plans?
Not that much right now.
From what I understand, NASA is still working on the Space Launch System, the rocket that
will carry human astronauts out beyond low Earth orbit.
They’re still working on the Orion Crew Capsule, which can keep humans alive in space
for weeks at a time.
Although he was light on details, Pence did suggest a bigger involvement with private
industry, saying:
“By fostering much stronger partnerships between the federal government and the realm
of industry, and bringing the full force of our national interests to bear, American leadership
in space will be assured.”
At the recent International Astronautical Congress meeting in Adelaide, Australia, NASA
and the Russian Space Agency Roscosmos announced that they’d be working together to build
the Deep Space Gateway.
I talked about the Gateway a couple of weeks ago, and of course, by doing so, made my video
hopelessly out of date.
According to the space agencies, Russia will contribute up to three modules to the Deep
Space Gateway, as well as provide the docking system.
Which is a very similar commitment that Russia made to the International Space Station.
In addition, Russia will provide their own heavy lift vehicle, the Angara rocket, which
is still in development.
This is a big change from Russia’s earlier position, where it looked like they were going
to remove their support for the International Space Station.
Now they’re confirmed their commitment to the station through 2028 and helping build
the Deep Space Gateway.
We’re going to have to wait to find out exactly how NASA intends to fulfill this new
directive from the Trump Administration.
I said there were a total of 5 separate expeditions planned for the Moon, and the new NASA plans
are only the first.
You’ll hear about the other 4 in a moment, but first I’d like to thank:
Dawid Per The Seehgom
Anthony Fusco
And the rest of our 802 patrons for their generous support.
Wow… 800 patrons.
Thanks everyone.
If you love what we’re doing and want to get in on the action, head over to patreon.com/universetoday.
As I said, there are 4 more groups looking to send humans to the Moon.
The European Space Agency has been showcasing their plans for a lunar village for a few
years now.
This would be a permanent human colony on the Moon, made up of astronauts from various
nations.
Instead of providing a detailed plan, Jan Woerner, ESA’s Director General hoped to
see an international community come together to collaborate on the exploration of the Moon.
The Moon of course, does have a lot of resources.
There are permanently shadowed craters at the poles containing water ice, and groups
have demonstrated technologies for 3D printing habitats out of lunar regolith.
Next up, the have been directing more of their attention towards the Moon.
Their Chang’e program has already sent a two lunar orbiters to scan the surface of
the Moon in detail in 2007 and 2010.
They sent a lander and rover called Chang’e 3 in 2013 to explore the surface and demonstrate
their ability to land a payload safely on the Moon.
They tested a sample return rocket in 2014, and if all goes well, they’ll actually bring
samples back to Earth in 2019.
Oh, and look at their logo.
It’s the Moon, with a couple of footsteps in the middle of it.
Humans on the Moon!
The 4th group vying to send humans to the Moon, is of course SpaceX.
During his announcement of the BFR, Elon Musk made it clear that the primary goal for the
rocket was to send humans to Mars, building up a colony on the Red Planet.
But he also showed how the BFR was perfectly capable of landing on the Moon, and taking
off again, supplying cargo and astronauts to the lunar surface.
And finally, on October 17th, Bigelow Aerospace and United Launch Alliance announced their
plans to send an inflatable habitat to low Lunar orbit.
The B330 would be launched to low Earth orbit atop a ULA Vulcan rocket, inflated and equipped,
and then boosted out to the Moon.
It could serve as a base of operations for NASA astronauts, or a lunar hotel for megarich
space tourists.
That makes 5 separate groups looking to send humans to the Moon.
Wow.
What’s going to happen next?
It’s too early to know.
The Trump administration shifted focus to the Moon, matching the plans of the Chinese
and the Europeans.
Traditional aerospace firms as well as new competitors are scrambling to figure out the
best way to do it.
Will the Deep Space Gateway still be the way it happens, or will it be an inflatable Bigelow
habitat visited by SpaceX BFRs?
Will it be an international lunar colony including the US, Europe and the Chinese?
Everything’s up in the air now.
NASA will be pushing forward to sending humans back to the Moon.
That is, until another administration shows up, changes course and they’re off in a
new direction.
If you recall, I don’t think there should be any concrete destination.
I think NASA should follow a capabilities-driven approach, and just work on increase their
ability to keep humans alive in space for longer and farther from Earth.
But if I had to choose.
I’d probably go with sending humans back the Moon before going to Mars.
It’s closer, and if anything goes wrong, it takes less time to send help.
And in my opinion, that’s a pretty big advantage, when spaceflight is still incredibly dangerous,
and things go wrong all the time.
Well?
What do you think?
Are we going back to the Moon?
Does this announcement make sense considering the big promises made by Elon Musk and SpaceX
just a few weeks ago?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
Now, it’s time for a playlist.
All about going back to the Moon, and everyone’s reaction of the announcement.
First, here’s the full video of the actual announcement, just a warning, though, this
thing is 2 and a half hours long.
Our newest episode of the Weekly Space Hangout where we discuss it.
TMRO has their coverage of the announcement.
A video from ESA about what a Moon village would look like, and then another longer video
from ESA about their lunar plans.