NASA's New Moon Plans: 'Apollo on Steroids'

Published: Sep 19, 2005
Source: www.space.com



Despite a stalled space shuttle program, NASA is confident it can launch and sustain human exploration of the Moon by 2018, the space agency’s top officials said Monday.



The $104-billion plan calls for an Apollo-like vehicle to carry crews of up to four astronauts to the Moon for seven-day stays on the lunar surface. The spacecraft, NASA’s Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV), could even carry six-astronaut crews to the International Space Station (ISS) or fly automated resupply shipments as needed, NASA chief Michael Griffin said.



“Think of it as Apollo on steroids,” Griffin said as he unveiled the agency’s lunar exploration plan during a much-anticipated press conference at its Washington, D.C.-based headquarters. “Unless the U.S. wants to get out of manned spaceflight completely, this is the vehicle we need to be building.”



The announcement came as NASA works to resume operations at vital shuttle facilities affected by Hurricane Katrina, as well as solve external tank foam shedding problems to increase launch safety. But those problems are short term compared to NASA’s exploration plan, Griffin said.



“We must deal with our short term interests, but not forget our long term investment,” Griffin said. “The space program is a long term investment in our future.”continue..