Almost half a century after the last man walked on the surface of the moon - astronauts will return to it using parts of the space shuttle and parts of Apollo rockets
The American space agency presented the plan to the White House on Wednesday and to Congress on Friday (but the agencies only reported this last night) of the plan to return to the moon. An official announcement will be made on Monday from NASA headquarters in Washington.
The fact that the successor to the ferries facing retirement relies so much on old equipment, instead of fancy futuristic designs, makes technological and managerial sense." said John Logsdon, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University.
"The emphasis is on achieving goals and not on elegance," said Logdon, who along with other members of the Columbia Disaster Commission of Inquiry called for ending the chapter on dangerous ferries as early as possible.
"The people who made Apollo were pretty smart," Logson said. According to him, relying on advanced but unproven technology will slow down the pace of development and increase the costs, which are extremely high. added
The first astronauts will probably start using the new tool in 2012, on the first departure to low Earth orbit. The date depends on the success of NASA's other operations until then. In this way, there may be a two-year gap without a vehicle that will allow America to fly its people into space.
The goal of the space agency is to allow astronauts to explore the entire surface of the moon, including the part far from Earth.
After the Columbia disaster, President Bush called for decommissioning the current space shuttles by 2010, and for creating new tools that will be used in space exploration, will help the crews at the International Space Station, and will be able to reach, eventually, the moon and Mars as well. The target date he set for returning to the moon was the year 2020 and NASA wants to shorten it by two years by using proven parts.
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