NASA Reveals Lunar Base Plans And Requests Ideas From The Industry

Starting with 2024, NASA will send 4 of its astronauts on the moon for a period of 1 to 4 weeks. That’s why, back in Washington, they’ve made a request for new ideas about this, ideas that will be included in the lunar outpost.

According to NASA’s declarations, the moon base will use pressurized rovers to transport people for hundreds of miles. Once they get there, the crew will gather strong scientific evidences and bring them back to Earth.

Chris Culbert is the manager of Lunar Surface Systems project and he thinks that this is probably the best way to collect great ideas. For him and his team this is not the first trip to the moon. They’ve been there several times but they didn’t stay for long because there were only 2 astronauts. Now everything is different.

At the industry meeting in Washington, NASA made public their entire request about the lunar base. In time, this base can be expanded in order to be able to host more people. For now, the lunar base will need to be entirely self-sufficient, for long periods of up to half a year.

According to Larry Toups, the manager of habitation systems for the lunar outpost, the interconnected “modules” will provide the astronauts with everything they need: air, food, water and equipment. Also, the modules will include all the necessary systems to manage waste, humidity, heat, pressure and to keep them safe from moon dust and radiation. All this was especially designed so that they can live safely for 28 days.

Each of these modules weighting 7.7 tons and measuring 8.5 meters (27 feet) will leave Earth attached to an Aries V rocket. In its walls, the module will store pressurized spacesuits for the astronauts to wear if they want to get in and out in only 15 minutes.

The module will be powered by solar panels that will provide 35 kilowatts of electricity. Normally this capacity could handle perfectly around 25 American houses. Another viable option, according to Culbert, is considered to be the nuclear power.

Once they get there, the astronauts will exit their base, explore the landscape and gather important scientific data. To do that, they will need great mobility and that involves distances between hundreds and thousands kilometres.

Yoder declared that they will start exploring from the first day, and to support that he presented a sketch of a rover with six legs that can easily climb walls and step over boulders. This device will also integrate the technical capacity that will allow it to dig up and move the regolith (moon soil).

In time, NASA is planning on creating streets on the moon for these vehicles and that’s not everything. They’ll also construct launching pads and level landing. If the moon surface will turn into a city street, the rovers will work easily and will complete their job faster.

Because of the vibrations caused by the rocket launch, the astronauts will need a novel packaging system to protect their equipment and for this they’re considering using an edible foam material.

Stay tuned for a full step by step explanation on NASA’s plan of putting a lunar base on the moon, coming tomorrow.

Sources: mcclatchydc.com, Nasa.gov

Image source: Nasa.gov