TheNational Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has proposed several conceptmoonbases for achieving apermanent presence of humans on the Moon since the late 1950s. Research and exploration of the Moon have been a large focus of the organization since theApollo program. NASA's peak budget was in 1964–1965, when it comprised 4% of all federal spending in service of the ApolloMoon landing project.[1] Though lunar landings since the conclusion of the Apollo program in 1972 have ceased, interest in establishing a permanent habitation on the lunar surface or beyondlow Earth orbit has remained steady. Recently, renewed interest in lunar landing has led to increased funding and project planning. NASA requested an increase in the 2020 budget of $1.6 billion, in order to makeanother crewed mission to the Moon under theArtemis program by 2025 (originally 2024), (delayed to 2026) followed by a sustained presence on the Moon by 2028.[2] A crew was selected for the planned crewed mission, Artemis II,[3] in April 2023.
The Lunex Project, conceptualized in 1958, was aUS Air Force plan for a crewed lunar landing prior to theApollo Program in 1961. It envisaged a 21-person undergroundAir Force Base on the Moon by 1968 at a total cost of $7.5 billion.[4]
Project Horizon was a 1959 study regarding theUnited States Army's plan to establish a fort on the Moon by 1967.[5]Heinz-Hermann Koelle, a German rocket engineer of theArmy Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA) led the Project Horizon study. It was proposed that the first landing would be carried out by two "soldier-astronauts" in 1965 and that more construction workers would soon follow. It was posited that through numerous launches (61Saturn Is and 88Saturn C-2s), 245 tons of cargo could be transported to the outpost by 1966.
On 8 June 1959, the US Army'sBallistic Missile Agency (ABMA) organized a task force calledProject Horizon to assess the feasibility of constructing amilitary base on the Moon.
Project Horizon proposed using a series ofSaturn[6] launches to pre-construct an outpost while in Earth orbit, with the intention of subsequently delivering and landing the completed assembly on the Moon. AdditionalSaturn launches each month would then ship supplies to the inhabitants.[6]
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In 1984, with theSpace Shuttle in service, a team based at theJohnson Space Center (JSC) made a feasibility study for NASA's return to theMoon. It anticipated later studies in using NASA's planned infrastructure – the Shuttle, a Shuttle-derived heavy lift vehicle, a space station, and an orbital transfer vehicle – to build a permanent 18-crew Moon base sometime between 2005 and 2015.[7]
TheSpace Shuttle was to have transported the empty 21,000-kilogram lunar lander and payload to the space station, where they would rendezvous with the 100 ton propellant module.
The first objective was the creation of a small semipermanently crewed "camp" on the lunar surface in 2005–2006.
NASA was to have launched a lunar orbiting space station in 2008–2009 to support the creation of a permanently crewed moonbase by 2009–2010.
This operational surface base would have contained an expanded mining facility, lunar materials processing pilot plants and a lunar agriculture research laboratory; pilot oxygen production and experimental mining facilities would have been landed previously.
The lunar surface facility would have grown to an 18-crew "advanced base" in 2013–2014, consisting of five habitation modules, a geochemical laboratory, chemical/biological lab, geochemical/petrology lab, a particle accelerator, a radio telescope, lunar oxygen, ceramics and metallurgy plants, two shops, three power units (90% lunar-materials derived), one earthmover/crane and three trailers/mobility units. The ultimate goal would be a self-sustaining moonbase by 2017–2018.
The following were the names of vehicles or mission steps associated with the JSC Moon Base:
TheInternational Lunar Resources Exploration Concept (ILREC) was a proposed mission architecture underPresident George H. W. Bush'sSpace Exploration Initiative (SEI) by Kent Joosten, an engineer atJohnson Space Center. The plan would have used the help of international partners, mainly theSoviet Union, to assemble a lunar base and sustainable lunar transportation service. The program was not able to get off the ground as it was proposed at the end of SEI's very short lifespan with the only surviving project beingSpace Station Freedom (now theInternational Space Station)
TheExploration Systems Architecture Study (ESAS) is the official title of a large-scale, system-level study released by NASA in November 2005 in response to American presidentGeorge W. Bush's announcement on 14 January 2004 of his goal of returningastronauts to the Moon and eventuallyMars— known as theVision for Space Exploration (and unofficially as "Moon, Mars and Beyond" in some aerospace circles, though the specifics of a human "beyond" program were vague).
On 4 December 2006, NASA announced the conclusion of its Global Exploration Strategy andLunar Architecture Study.[8] The Lunar Architecture Study's purpose was to "define a series of lunar missions constituting NASA's Lunar campaign to fulfill the Lunar Exploration elements" of the Vision for Space Exploration.[9] The result was a basic plan for a lunar outpost near one of the poles of the Moon, which would permanently house astronauts in six-month shifts. These studies were made before the discovery ofwater ice (5.6 ± 2.9% by mass) in a polar crater,[10] which may substantially affect plans.
A reference architecture was established for this outpost, based on a location on the rim of theShackleton crater, located in the immenseSouth Pole-Aitken basin, near the Moon's south pole. At a presentation on 4 December 2006, Doug Cooke, Deputy Associate Administrator, NASA Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, described an area "that is ... sunlit ... 75 to 80 percent of the time, and it is adjacent to a permanently dark region in which there is potentially volatiles that we can extract and use. ... This sunlit area is about the size of theWashington Mall."[11] (approximately 1.25 km2). The IndianChandrayaan-1 orbiter (2008–2009) helped in the determination of the precise location of the outpost.[12]
Other locations considered for possible lunar outposts included the rim ofPeary crater near the lunar north pole and the Malapert Mountain region on the rim ofMalapert crater.
The outpost design included:
The outpost would have been supplied by a mixed crew and cargoAltair lander, capable of bringing four astronauts and a payload of six tons to the Moon's surface.
As planned, an incremental buildup would begin with four-person crews making several seven-day visits to the moon until their power supplies, rovers and living quarters were operational. The first mission was envisioned for 2020. This would be followed by 180-day missions to prepare for journeys toMars.
George W. Bush'sVision for Space Exploration was eventually replaced with PresidentBarack Obama'sspace policy.[9]
Updated plans envisionedNASA to construct an outpost over the five years between 2019 and 2024. TheUnited States Congress directed that the U.S. portion, "shall be designated theNeil A. Armstrong Lunar Outpost".[13]
On 6 June 2008, NASA announced a set of six research opportunities and requested proposals for research funding in response to the announcement.[14] The overall budget for research conducted as part of this "Lunar Surface Systems Concepts Study" was believed to be $2 million. Proposals were selected and contracts awarded in August 2008 by the NASA Constellation Lunar Surface Systems Project Office (LSSPO).
The LSSPO was established at theJohnson Space Center in August 2007.[15] The LSSPO was studying lunar surface systems such as "habitation systems",ISRU,rovers, power production and storage, systems to meet science and exploration objectives and safety systems. The LSSPO was expected to conduct a surface system concept review in the 2010 or 2011 timeframe.
TheArtemis program is a plannedcrewed spaceflight program carried out predominately byNASA, U.S.commercial spaceflight companies, and international partners such as theEuropean Space Agency (ESA),JAXA, and theCanadian Space Agency (CSA) with the goal of landing "the first woman and the next man" on the Moon, specifically at thelunar south pole region by 2026. NASA sees Artemis as the next step towards the long-term goal of establishing a sustainable presence on the Moon, laying the foundation for private companies to build a lunar economy, and eventually sending humans toMars. One primary target isShackleton crater. In 2028 NASA plans on launching theLunar Surface Asset, a small habitat to the surface of the Moon on either anSLS Block 1B or through anArtemis Support Mission on a commercial launcher. This would be the first crewed lunar base.
The US-ledArtemis Program has scheduled several crewed landings at theMoon's south polar region, starting withArtemis III planned for 2026 at the earliest,[16] setting up five temporary base camps with theHuman Landing Systems (HLS) untilArtemis VIII is planned to set up the fixedFoundational Surface Habitat (FSH) of theArtemis Base Camp in the 2030s.[17][18][19]
A station inlunar orbit can serve as a communications hub, temporary habitation module, and holding area for rovers and other robots intended for an outpost on lunar ground.[20] NASA leads a proposal for such a station, named Lunar Gateway. The omnibus spending bill passed by the U.S.Congress in March 2018 provided NASA with $504 million for preliminary studies during the 2019 fiscal year.[21] The final funding amount enacted by Congress was slightly lower at $450 million.[22]
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In the words of formerNASA Administrator,Michael D. Griffin,[23]
The goal isn't just scientific exploration. ... It's also about extending the range of human habitat out from Earth into the solar system as we go forward in time. ... In the long run a single-planet species will not survive. ... If we humans want to survive for hundreds of thousands or millions of years, we must ultimately populate other planets.Now, today the technology is such that this is barely conceivable. We're in the infancy of it. ... I'm talking about that one day, I don't know when that day is, but there will be more human beings who live off the Earth than on it. We may well have people living on the moon. We may have people living on the moons of Jupiter and other planets. We may have people making habitats on asteroids ... I know that humans will colonize the solar system and one day go beyond.
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Criticisms come from groups that want the human exploration money diverted to Mars, from those who prefer uncrewed exploration, and from those who simply want the money spent elsewhere. The criticisms listed here mostly predate the discovery of significant amounts of polar water ice.Jeff Foust, writing forThe Space Review, called the six themes that NASA released too "broad" and the explanations supporting them "shallow." He also argues that a Moonbase is a poor use of resources, since "science can be done for far less money byrobotic missions—which also don't put human lives at risk."[24] TheLos Angeles Times seconded that in an editorial, saying "Manned moon flight may appeal tobaby boomers, but it makes little scientific sense for most space missions these days. Robots can now perform or be developed to perform, most of the tasks people would do at a moon station."[25]
ColumnistGregg Easterbrook, who has reported on the space program for decades, has criticized the plans as a poor use of resources. He writes that,
Although, of course, the base could yield a great discovery, its scientific value is likely to be small while its price is extremely high. Worse, moon-base nonsense may for decades divert NASA resources from the agency's legitimate missions, draining funding from real needs in order to construct human history's silliestwhite elephant.[26]
According to Easterbrook, the billions of dollars that a lunar colony might cost should instead be devoted to exploring theSolar System withspace probes;space observatories; and protecting the Earth fromnear-Earth asteroids.
Buzz Aldrin, the second of twelve men to have walked on the Moon, disagrees with NASA's current goals and priorities, including their plans for a lunar outpost. While not necessarily opposed to sending people back to the Moon, Aldrin argues that NASA should concentrate on ahuman mission to Mars and leave further lunar exploration and the establishment of a base there to a consortium of other countries under U.S. leadership.[27] In a July 2009 editorial in theWashington Post, he said that NASA'sVision for Space Exploration "is not visionary; nor will it ultimately be successful in restoring American space leadership. Like its Apollo predecessor, this plan will prove to be a dead-end littered with broken spacecraft, broken dreams, and broken policies." He continued by saying that:
the lunar surface ... is a poor location for homesteading. The moon is a lifeless, barren world, its stark desolation matched by its hostility to all living things. And replaying the glory days of Apollo will not advance the cause of American space leadership or inspire the support and enthusiasm of the public and the next generation of space explorers.[28]
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