NASA’s moon plan: “Apollo on steroids”

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.