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NASA's moon plan: "Apollo on steroids"

Posted on: Monday, 19 September 2005, 13:07 CDT

By Deborah Zabarenko

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - NASA on Monday unveiled its $104 billion plan to return Americans to the moon by 2018 aboard a capsule-like vehicle the space agency's chief described as "Apollo on steroids."

Like the Apollo program that carried the first humans to the moon in 1969, the new system would put crew members into a capsule sitting atop a rocket, and would have a separate heavy-lift vehicle to take only cargo into orbit.

"It is very Apollo-like ... but bigger," NASA chief Michael Griffin said at a briefing. "Think Apollo on steroids."

The capsule's base would be considerably larger than Apollo's -- 18 feet compared with 12.8 feet (3.9 metres) -- and it would weigh about 50 percent more, Griffin said. It would be able to carry six people, instead of Apollo's three, and be able to stay in lunar orbit for six months.

The first human mission to the moon since 1972 would likely take place in 2018, Griffin said, carrying four people for a four- to seven-day stay.

They would get there in several stages, with a cargo vehicle launching to Earth orbit, where it would dock with a later launch of the crew capsule. It would then be propelled to lunar orbit, with a landing craft, whose bottom half is meant to stay on the moon as a long-term base.

Moon voyagers would return to the capsule in the top half of the lander and travel back to Earth, floating down safely with the help of parachutes and airbags to the projected landing site at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

REPLACING THE SPACE SHUTTLE

The new space system is meant to replace the aging and now-grounded shuttle fleet, but would use some shuttle components, including its solid rocket boosters, its main engine and its massive external tank, Griffin said.

Griffin defended the program's cost, which is expected to spark criticism in light of current U.S. commitments in Iraq and in the areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina. He noted that this program will cost 55 percent of what Apollo cost, in constant dollars spread over 13 years.

"There will be a lot more hurricanes and a lot more other natural disasters to befall the United States and the world" before the launch in 2018, Griffin said. "... We must deal with our short-term problems while not sacrificing our long-term investments in our future. When we have a hurricane, we don't cancel the Air Force ... and we're not going to cancel NASA."

The new launch system is part of President George W. Bush's 2004 Vision for Space Exploration, which called for a human mission to the moon by 2020 and an eventual trip to Mars and other planets in our solar system.

But meantime, the United States is committed to completing the International Space Station, and for now must use the hobbled shuttle fleet to lift the heavy pieces into orbit.

The shuttles are slated to retire in 2010, but Griffin said the new Crew Exploration Vehicle, as it is known, will not be up and running until 2012, leaving the United States with no way to get people into space on its own.

Asked about this two-year flight gap, Griffin said, "We're willing to live with it because it is what we believe we can afford, based on the budget which is in play."

Griffin had no answer when asked when the first human mission to Mars would be.

The three shuttles are currently grounded while experts work to solve problems with falling debris that doomed the shuttle Columbia in 2003. Russian vehicles now ferry people and cargo to the orbiting station.

Source: REUTERS

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