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NASA held a press conference today announcing plans for a lunar base, and the commercial partners that will make it happen.
“People are looking up again, believing in big things again, and paying attention as America returns to the moon again – and this time to land,” NASA administrator Jared Isaacman said at a press conference on Tuesday.
Plans continue on the success of the Artemis II mission to the moon last month, and will be part of the Artemis mission planned to return humans to the lunar surface.
The new plans come after Isaacman revealed in February that he was shaking things up at the space station, including adding the Artemis mission and “pausing” the Lunar Gateway, a proposed space station that would orbit the moon.
Canada’s MDA Space was to supply the station with another robotic arm called Canadarm3.
The new plans for what NASA calls its Moon Base include a follower provided by Blue Origin. That will be part of Moon Base 1, which will be launched later this year.
Moon Base 2 will house lunar terrain vehicles (LTVs). The first was given to Astrolab, which will be delivered by Astrobotic, the second to Lunar Outpost, two commercial companies that will be part of NASA. Trading Monthly Billing Services (CLPS), a program involving private companies that contract with the space agency for various services.
Eventually, Moon Base 3 will house payloads from the European Space Agency and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute.
There are already a few machines in the CLPS system with varying degrees of success.
These plans include lunar missions to be provided by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and delivered by a commercial partner. Firefly Aerospace.
With the world’s first winner of the commercial month arriving this week, CBC’s Bob McDonald and Nicole Mortillaro explain why it’s important and how Canada is poised to become a major player in the commercial real estate industry.
“We are working with many international and commercial partners to leverage the incredible capabilities, from the commercial industry, to build the foundation for everything we hope to achieve in this endeavor,” said Isaacman.
Canada was not mentioned in today’s announcement.
“We’re having a lot of discussions individually with various international partners about the types of missions we can collaborate on,” said Lori Glaze, acting director of NASA’s mission development division. “So there are a lot of those conversations going on right now.”
Several machines
The proposed plans are not small.
“We envision the Moon Base to be hundreds of kilometers long, with different assets, all building towards the goal of having a permanent presence on the moon,” said Carlos García-Galán, Moon Base program manager.
“The 1st stage … will be launched 25 times, 21 landings, and we plan to bring about four metric tons of cargo to the surface of the moon,” said García-Galán, “And we want to finish that to 60 metric tons to 150. When we get to the 3rd stage.”
The Artemis II crew (Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, Jeremy Hansen) met with CBC News reporter Adrienne Arsenault in Montreal to answer questions from Canadians about their milestone mission of one million kilometers to the moon.
The idea is that these robotic missions will provide the necessary tools for the Artemis astronauts. The first mission to land on the moon will be Artemis IV, which NASA says will happen in 2028.
Gordon Osinski, a professor of planetary science at Western University who was also a leader in the cancellation of the Canadian rover mission, welcomed the announcement.
“Following the success of Artemis II and the recent robotic missions to the moon, I think it is very likely that the first three lunar missions will actually happen this year,” he said.
“I think what they’re accomplishing will happen…. I think with anything in life, if you don’t aim high, you’ll never get there.”
Regarding Canada’s involvement, Osinski said there is no need for us to drop out of the race. He noted that there is another larger rover planned, but the Canadian Space Agency’s timeline is in the mid-2030s.
“So we have to get our act together in Canada to make sure we can keep up with NASA. You know, the pace has increased. And NASA is not going to wait.”
There will be more announcements in the coming months, Isaacman said. Everything is being prepared for a long stay on the lunar surface.
“We’re building the first human base outside of Earth,” Glaze said. “With Artemis, we go. And with Moon Base, we stay.”
