Is the Lunar Rover going to make another appearance? I think I'll volunteer as 4WD Pilot !!!
Don't care if the USA can or can't afford it.... I think that the human race needs to see some accomplishments again. I also reckon that this is a shot in the arm that the world needs right now. To all those Apollo conspiracy theorists out there - go get a life! :)
I think that it will just release some pressure on several fronts for the USA - and the rest of us too. I, for one, would cut off my right one to be able to go over there and offer my
services in any way I could. I love the space program - always have, always will. I think I'll volunteer as 4WD Pilot !!!
If man was to land on the moon again, It would be a sweet couple of weeks of news for once.
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Walking on the moon ... again
From: Agence France-Presse
From correspondents in Washington
September 20, 2005
Apollo 11 / Reuters
Moon bound ... Apollo 11 blasts off from Kennedy Space Centre and into history / Reuters
THE US will send four astronauts to the moon in 2018 in a return to its pioneering manned missions into space.
NASA is to design a new rocket based on the technology from its ageing shuttles that are to be retired in 2010. A new ship could be orbiting in space by 2012.
The last manned mission to the moon was the Apollo 17 rocket in 1972. The new mission would also launch preparations to set up a permanent base on the moon, NASA administrator Michael Griffin said.
He estimated the cost of the return to the moon at $US104 billion ($135.6 billion) and insisted it should not be affected by rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina or the Iraq war.
US President George W. Bush announced in January 2004 that NASA would resume manned missions to the moon as a first step toward sending humans to Mars.
Mr Griffin said the new rocket would be "very Apollo-like, with updated technology. Think of it as Apollo on steroids."
The new Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) will enable astronauts to spend four times longer on the moon than the Apollo astronauts. The new missions will spend up to one week on the moon.
NASA plans to build a new heavy-lift rocket carrying the CEV, which would be able to take up to six crew members.
NASA said crews and cargo would be carried into orbit on a shuttle-based launch system, using a solid rocket booster and an upper stage powered by a shuttle main engine.
NASA was badly hit by the Challenger explosion in 1986 and the Columbia disaster in 2003. But the agency said the new rockets would be 10 times safer than the shuttles because of their design and new launch system.
The lunar missions will be backed up by a heavy cargo launch vehicle, powered by five shuttle engines, which can carry up to 125 tonnes of equipment and supplies. A lunar lander would be carried by the heavy launch vehicle.
Once it has been launched into orbit, the CEV would dock with the lunar lander and the propulsion stage and start its journey to the moon.
Robotic missions to the moon to study its terrain will be carried out between 2008 and 2011.
"Returning to the moon and sustaining a presence there will demonstrate humans can survive on another world," said Mr Griffin.
He added that it would "build confidence that astronauts can venture still farther into space and stay for longer periods."
Mr Griffin said that in comparable terms, the new moon program would cost only 55 per cent of the Apollo missions and would not need an increase in NASA's budget.
But the cost is expected to meet opposition in Congress, which is already facing major debates over the five billion dollars a month going to the Iraq war as
well as the rebuilding the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina.
Bart
Gordon, a Democratic member of the House of Representatives, said: "This plan is coming out at a time when the nation is facing significant budgetary challenges.
"Getting agreement to move forward on it is going to be heavy lifting in the current environment, and it's clear that strong presidential leadership will be needed."
In Paris, the European Space Agency welcomed the news. "It shows that things continue to move ahead," spokesman Franco Bonacina said. He noted Mr Giffin had also mentioned international cooperation in the new effort.