While the official Obama administration line is that NASA should have its eyes on a Mars landing, a study from NexGen Space LLC and funded in part by NASA says that we should go to the moon instead and set up camp for good. The price tag is $10 billion, and NexGen Space proposes it be funded by a public-private partnership.

Under the proposed timeline, robotic construction would begin in 2021, with humans arriving shortly after. A full-scale base would open by 2031, likely at the moon's south pole, where the sun isn't as much of a hazard and water accumulates as ice caps.



The study is part of a growing chorus that says all roads to Mars should go through the moon. A moonbase was part of George W. Bush's space plan, called Constellation, which also had the end goal of Mars. But the Obama administration wants to explore all-new frontiers rather than returning to the moon, and seeks to gain support for the Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) as the step before humans go to Mars.

According to the study, however, a moon base could provide a much needed boost. NexGen proposes commercial propellant mining on the Moon as a way to Mars. The reduced gravity would make launches consume less fuel and require less use of the Space Launch System, the over-budget deep-space rocket that's one of two holdovers from the Constellation program. (The other holdover is the Orion capsule.) According to the report, the savings for a Mars mission would be ten-fold. It would open up the moon to the kinds of exploration Apollo only hinted at. There have been other proposals for moon facilities in the past, including a liquid mirror telescope on the Moon that would allow unparalleled imaging.

While the impulse to shoot for Mars immediately is more understandable, that plan is 20 years off, while NexGen thinks the moon base could be shovel-ready in five to seven years. The commercial activity would help the base pay for itself, according to NexGen, allowing cash-strapped NASA to breathe a little easier. Currently, the agency's high ambitions run up against an $18 billion budget that has to be divided among its robotic Mars missions, its planetary probes, its ISS costs, the commercial crew program supporting companies like SpaceX and Boeing, research and development, Hubble and its successor James Webb, and more. The total adds up fast.

With the commercial space industry comes into its own, a public-private venture may be the way to go to the moon. As the report points out, NASA is already participating with Space X and Boeing, who provide resupply missions and who will begin ferrying astronauts to the ISS in two years. The private-public partnership could keep the current priorities intact, with private ownership of the moon base while NASA continues its activities in Earth orbit and lunar space. (That includes the ARM, which would bring an asteroid into orbit around the moon.)

This is, of course, just a study and a proposal, and not something ready to launch. But if it garners enough support, then permanent human settlement of the moon could inch closer to reality.

Source: The Verge

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