And this week, it unveiled more details of its plan to build a habitable base on the moon, a self-sustaining eco system, by 2032 - just six years from now.
And for the longest time, the idea of humans living on the moon has been exactly that; the stuff of science fiction.
Other contracts were handed to firms developing the next generation of moon buggies, autonomous vehicles that can be remotely controlled from Earth, as well as specialised hopper drones that will survey the south pole, where Nasa’s moon base will be constructed.
Bezos and MuskA race that will pit the world’s richest men - in Bezos, and, of course, Elon Musk of Space X fame, who is also deeply embedded in Nasa’s moon mission - against China.
Planning to use its moon base as a celestial stepping stone - to fuel the next giant leap - all the way to Mars.
Nasa has declared that the next “golden age of space exploration” has begun. And this week, it unveiled more details of its plan to build a habitable base on the moon, a self-sustaining eco system, by 2032 - just six years from now.
Just take that in. The idea that humans will be able to live and function on the lunar surface for long periods of time, extracting both oxygen and water from the frozen lakes of the moon’s south pole while using nuclear fission reactors to power everyday lunar life.
It seems, well, otherworldly. But you have to admire the ambition, because ambition in space exploration is everything. “To boldly go where no man has gone before”, as Captain James Kirk famously says at the start of every Star Trek episode. And for the longest time, the idea of humans living on the moon has been exactly that; the stuff of science fiction.
You’re reading InDepth: A weekly long read from Channel 4 News offering quality analysis and insight, diving deeper beyond the headlines
Competition with China
But under President Trump, Nasa is serious about turning that fiction into reality. It’s the cosmic realisation of the America First agenda. Having successfully used space as a way to project US strength against Russia during the Cold War, now it’s competition with China that’s driving the next phase. Boots on the ground by 2028, just in time to celebrate the end of Trump’s term.
To that end, this week Nasa issued nearly a billion dollars’ worth of contracts for phase 1 of its “moon base” plan - with the biggest cheque awarded to the Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, whose Blue Origin space company is developing a moon lander - Endurance - that theoretically will transport the cargo needed to support lunar life and land it on the moon’s surface.
Other contracts were handed to firms developing the next generation of moon buggies, autonomous vehicles that can be remotely controlled from Earth, as well as specialised hopper drones that will survey the south pole, where Nasa’s moon base will be constructed.
The first missions will begin this autumn and will be unmanned, to test the systems and begin moving equipment onto the moon. Multiple other launches will follow. The ultimate aim is to have American astronauts touch down two years from now, the first time since the iconic Apollo lunar landings of the late 1960s that so captured the world and ignited the modern space race.
Bezos and Musk
A race that will pit the world’s richest men - in Bezos, and, of course, Elon Musk of Space X fame, who is also deeply embedded in Nasa’s moon mission - against China. For sure there’s no end of Hollywood scripts that will likely emerge to chart what’s about to unfold.
But will Nasa be able to deliver the action, on time and on budget?
“The new moon-based vision that’s just come out from Nasa is a particularly courageous plan on the timeline. The deadline for a lot of things is now 2029 from the United States, and that includes about over 20 landings of various kinds, mostly robotic, and a few human landings as well… and the beginnings of a new permanent or long-term habitation module or station on the lunar surface, all by 2029. I think that timeline will not be realised,” Dr Bleddyn Bowen, Associate Professor of Astropolitics and Co-director of the Space Research Centre at Durham University, told us.
Dr Bowen thinks a much more realistic timetable is a decade on, around 2039, given where the technology is right now.
Behind schedule
For example, Nasa has contracted two companies to build the landers that are needed to physically place equipment and people on the moon - Musk is developing a lunar version of his massive Starship rocket, pictured below, while Bezos’s Blue Moon Mark 2 ship is his lunar lander.
But both are behind schedule. Space X’s Starship - the one where the “pincers” capture the rocket booster when it returns to Earth - is at least two years behind, according to Nasa, while Blue Moon is at least eight months late.
“So we hear a lot about Starship in the news and that is still in development,” Dr Bowen says. “It’s not something that’s been tested enough for you to trust it with carrying humans, especially if you want to reuse that vehicle after it’s been through the punishing effects of re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere.”
Deep pockets
Of course, Bezos and Musk have been chosen because both have deep enough pockets that they can throw money at these engineering problems and hopefully fix them, far faster than Nasa could ever do on its own. But even they can’t perform miracles.
This is complex and cutting-edge scientific experimentation; refuelling at more than a thousand miles an hour in Earth’s orbit; carrying hundreds of tons of cargo to the moon; building nuclear reactors on the lunar surface.
Share Channel 4 News
Human ingenuity
We find it hard enough building them on Earth! So none of this is going to be easy. But that’s part of the awesome nature of space exploration. Operating at the frontier of human ingenuity - pushing the absolute boundaries of our technological and biological capabilities.
Nasa thinks that by overcoming these extreme environments, the endeavour itself will act as a catalyst for further innovation. That creating a self-sustaining lunar economy will ultimately benefit life back on Earth.
Dr Bowen ponders what that lunar economy might eventually look like.
“Is it going to be something like Antarctica, with far fewer people because it’s so much more expensive and much more hostile as an environment to human and all life as we know it? It remains just something for science and perhaps long-term territorial interests?
“Is it going to be something like Everest? There will be some scientific interest, but it’s perhaps the tourist market that might be most appealing, or perhaps adventurism, like Everest in the past, where it was national campaigns or privately financed by the massively wealthy elite?”
An artist’s rendering of the Moon Base (Credit: Nasa)
“Or is it something like an oil rig? Are there going to be pockets of resources on there that are going to be really useful for other things we want to do?
“Since we don’t know what the future of the moon really is going to look like, if there’s going to be a significant human presence there at all, there are all sorts of fascinating discussions that can be had over it.”
One thing we do know is Nasa is already thinking light years ahead. Planning to use its moon base as a celestial stepping stone - to fuel the next giant leap - all the way to Mars.
Share Channel 4 News
Leave a comment
