The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has revealed details of the equipment it plans to send to the moon to establish a permanent base there, and one of the chosen partners is the company “Blue Origin” owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, writes the BBC.
The US wants to land Americans on the moon by 2029, when President Donald Trump’s term in office ends. At the same time, there is also a fierce competition with China, which also wants to send people to the moon, which means that NASA is under pressure to be the winner. The Chinese plan to land people on the moon by 2030. On the 25th of May, it launched the Shenzhou-23 rocket, which will carry astronauts to the Chinese space station.
NASA announced in March a 20 billion dollars program to build a permanent base on the moon’s surface, powered by solar and nuclear power, by 2032. The agency’s administrator, Jared Isaacman, said on the 26th of May that this meant the United States would never again abandon its plans for the moon.
A base on the moon would allow Americans to conduct scientific research, potentially mine minerals and more easily continue their journey to Mars. However, most experts believe that NASA’s own deadline is unrealistic. Despite the successful landing of astronauts on the moon during the Artemis II mission in April, some scientists believe that the Chinese will be the next to land on the moon. Lunar explorer Simeon Barber told the BBC that he would not be surprised if the Chinese were the next to land on the moon. He was referring to NASA’s failure to find a vehicle that could land passengers on the moon.
NASA’s Ignition Moon Base program has three phases.
Before humans go to the moon, the space agency wants to send robotic vehicles there to map the lunar terrain. It also needs to deliver vehicles to the moon that astronauts can use later.
The agency named the companies it will contract to build the vehicles on the 26th of May, including Blue Origin, Intuitive Machines and Astrobotic. NASA wants Blue Origin’s Endurance rover to be able to make a precision landing and autonomously control navigation and control the device. Astrobotic’s Griffin-1 rover will have to land in a crater near the moon’s south pole. All of the spacecraft will have to carry research instruments to the moon, including high-resolution cameras.
The robotic exploration is planned until 2029, and will include 25 rocket launches and the delivery of cargo in the amount of four tons. After that, NASA wants to build power plants, including nuclear reactors. In turn, by 2032, it is necessary to create temporary human settlements.
The South Pole of the Moon was chosen because it has frozen water that could be used to obtain drinking water and produce oxygen. However, all NASA plans are based on the assumption that a spacecraft will be created that can safely deliver people to the Moon. Barber explained that it is precisely a safe and predictable landing that is the main limitation. A contract has been signed with SpaceX to build the Starship Human Landing System spacecraft, but the project has already encountered obstacles and delays several times. Barber indicated that NASA’s publicly expressed optimism, in his opinion, is politically motivated.
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