The space agency on Tuesday outlined the first phase of its lunar base plan, awarding hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts to four U.S. companies.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — In less than two months, NASA has ordered landers, rovers and drones for its massive lunar base. Artemis 2’s record-breaking flight around the moon.
The space agency outlines The first phase of its moon base plan Contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars were awarded to four U.S. companies on Tuesday.
Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin will provide a pair of landers to carry rovers to the lunar surface a place near the south pole of the moon. These so-called lunar terrain vehicles will be built by Astrolab and Lunar Outpost. Firefly Aerospace, which successfully landed on the moon last year, will deliver the first batch of drones to the moon.
Ideally, all this hardware should arrive before the first Artemis astronauts land on the moon, which is planned as early as 2028.
period April’s Artemis 2 missionDuring this period, four astronauts orbited the moon, going deeper than the Apollo lunar astronauts did in the late 1960s and early 1970s. On next year’s Artemis III mission, another team of astronauts will practice docking NASA’s Orion capsule in orbit around Earth with a lunar lander developed for astronauts by Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
NASA’s goal is to land Artemis III on the moon in mid-2027, with two astronauts landing on the moon as early as 2028. The second phase of the lunar base, from 2029 to the early 2030s, will begin with the construction of permanent infrastructure, including power grids. As for when the base will be ready to support astronauts long-term in dedicated permanent habitats, it’s expected to be sometime in the 2030s, during Phase 3.
“Then we can say, ‘Hey, we’re here forever and we’re not giving up,'” said Carlos Garcia-Garland, NASA’s Moon Base program executive officer.
Garcia-Garland envisions a lunar base covering hundreds of square miles, with its perimeter marked by drones called “moonfalls” stationed at the corners.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the territorial markings are out of respect for other countries’ spacecraft and equipment that may be nearby. He wanted reciprocity in the matter.
Isaacman emphasized that the goal of the lunar base is to encourage a lunar economy while conducting scientific research and laying the foundation for Mars exploration.
“For those of you who are patiently waiting, the great return is right around the corner and we are not slowing down,” Isaacman said. “We are really just getting started.”
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