NASA and Bigelow Aerospace are in the initial planning phases for a moon base. “As part of our broader commercial space strategy, NASA signed a Space Act Agreement with Bigelow Aerospace to foster ideas about how the private sector can contribute to future human missions,” Said David Weaver NASA Associate Administrator for the Office of Communications.

Photo: Moon Base Mockup, Bigelow Aerospace

“This will provide important information on possible ways to expand our exploration capabilities in partnership with the private sector,” said Weaver . “The agency is intensely focused on a bold mission to identify, relocate and explore an asteroid with American astronauts by 2025 — all as we prepare for an even more ambitious human mission to Mars in the 2030s. NASA has no plans for a human mission to the moon.”

Photo: Moon Base Mockup, Bigelow Aerospace

In January of this year NASA announced that they will be using a Bigelow inflatable module on the International Space Station. With that partnership, it opened up the doors for Bigelow to propose an even more ambitious plan to build a moon base with their inflatable module technology.

During a “Coast to Coast AM” interview, Robert Bigelow said the initial study would take 100 days, and the second phase would take 120 days. Bigelow has been doing preliminary planning for a moon base for years, this is the first time that he’s worked with NASA directly on the project. There will be no money involved in this study, it will be independently conducted by Bigelow Aerospace.

Bigelow gives a talk about space stations, man walking on the moon and more in this video.

Sources:

NBCNews

Wikipedia