NASA - Exploring the Moon

The US space agency Nasa has announced plans to return to the Moon by 2020.
Nasa administrator Dr Michael Griffin said four astronauts would be sent in a new space vehicle.

"We will return to the Moon no later than 2020 and extend human presence across the Solar System and beyond," Dr Griffin said on Monday.

Nasa sent nine manned missions to the Moon between 1968 and 1972. A total of 12 men walked on the lunar surface.

Different modules could be launched separately into space then joined together for the journey to lunar orbit.

The new missions would use rocket technology already employed on the space shuttle to cut the costs of development.

'Apollo on steroids'

Dr Griffin said the new rockets would be "very Apollo-like, with updated technology. Think of it as Apollo on steroids."

The agency chief was keen to head off criticism that the proposals amounted to a re-tread of those missions: "Much of it looks the same, but that's because the physics of atmospheric entry haven't changed recently," he said.

"We really proved once again how much of it all the Apollo guys got right."

Nasa is charged with implementing the vision for space exploration, laid out in January 2004 by President George W Bush.

This vision aims to return humans to the Moon, and then to use it as a staging point for a manned mission to Mars.

"We believe this architecture... achieves those goals in the most cost-effective, efficient manner that we could do it," said Dr Griffin in a news briefing at Nasa headquarters in Washington DC.

The space shuttle is to be retired by 2010 in order to pay for its replacement, the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) - to be ready by 2012. This vehicle would be shaped like the Apollo command and service modules, but three times larger, and able to take four astronauts to the Moon at a time.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• NASA
• Space
• Moon
• Science
• astronaut
• rocket
• lunar

[goodkarma33]

And people in hell want ice water. RETURNING implies we went there once before. BULLSHIT.

[quantumG]

I wonna pony.

[IlianVelev]

I wonna see a moonbase by 2020 - 2025, not just a lander like apollo...

[jurkmari]

those nasa are fucking liars anastasia was saying right

[Airclot]

Go die in a hole. You are a waste of oxygen.

[anastasia60559]

Yeah right. They havent even been to the moon yet!

[howtoguy321]

wow.. nice