NASA's
outlook for the future calls for humans to dig in their heels on the Moon as
early as 2015 and no later than 2020.
To
achieve that goal, there is significant work ahead. For one, there's flying the
Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) by 2014 as one element of the Constellation
Systems--the items needed to return humans to the Moon and eventually dispatch
astronauts to Mars.
NASA
has started assessing notions for lunar landers that will haul crew and cargo
to the surface of the Moon late in the next decade.
And
as NASA regains its Moon legs, it is worth noting what was left behind in the
lunar dust. Six Apollo lunar landers touched down on the Moon between 1969
through 1972. These two-person vessels enabled moonwalkers--often called the
"dusty dozen"--to carry out work on the lunar landscape from Apollo
11's modest 2.5 hours to Apollo 17's campaign of forays that added up to over
22 hours.
But
then was then. The search is now on to regain that ability.
Doing our homework
"The
lunar lander is probably the least well-developed of any of those pieces of
infrastructure that the government plans to provide," said John Connolly,
Manager of the Lunar Lander Pre-Project Constellation Program Office/APO at
NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
"We
don't know what the lander quite looks like yet," Connolly reported at a recent
space meeting. "We're not sure where it has to go or what it has to do."
Connolly
explained that NASA is intent on meshing the work of internal groups with
outside-the-agency brainstorming.
Last
month, NASA issued a Request For Information (RFI) meant to explore diverse
sets of lunar lander design configurations that may yield more innovative
solutions to supporting lunar surface missions.
"It
is about getting back to the Moon and doing our homework there
so we can go on to Mars and beyond," Connolly told SPACE.com. "We're
trying to engage industry, academia, or any interested
individuals and collect innovative lunar lander concepts that address
the current set of Constellation requirements.
The
newly issued RFI, Connolly said, demonstrates that there is more to the
Constellation Program than just the Crew Exploration Vehicle.
Science advice
The
rebirth of human exploration of the Moon is one action item of former Apollo 17
astronaut, Harrison Schmitt. While he's a been-there-done-that moonwalker, he
is also chair of the newly spruced up and re-chartered NASA Advisory Council.
In
that capacity, Schmitt has been busy building a bridge between the science
community and NASA exploration officials. "We want to make sure we have as
broad a basis for scientific advice as possible," he told a recent gathering of
scientists.
One
of Schmitt's targets of opportunity: Having scientists help influence the new
lunar lander design.
"As
conceptual designs of a new generation of lunar landing craft are being
considered," Schmitt told SPACE.com, "it is time for the broad
scientific community to provide NASA with specific goals and objectives for
scientific exploration and experiment deployment during or in conjunction with
future lunar activities."
Schmitt
noted that a similar effort by the scientific community in 1965 led to the
initial definition of scientific goals and objectives for the Apollo lunar
landings. That advice, in turn, influenced the design and re-design of the Apollo
program's Lunar Module and Command and Service Module, he said.
A busy place
"As
the Apollo program progressed, this definition matured into increasingly more
sophisticated experiments and astronaut training. Geological exploration became
a prominent component of mission preparation," Schmitt added. "Such planning
and preparation led to the extraordinary scientific understanding we now have
of the Moon and, as a consequence, of the early history of the Earth and other
terrestrial planets."
The human and robotic lunar sortie missions being planned by NASA will provide new opportunities for geological exploration of never visited regions of the
Moon, Schmitt explained.
Schmitt
foresees the Moon as a busy place: geophysical sensors spread out to better
understand the interior of the Moon; observatories to add to our understanding
of the solar system and the universe; and utilizing the Moon to prepare for
future exploration of Mars.
Straightforward mantra
For
their part, NASA internal teams are scrutinizing a variety of items, from the
design of the lunar lander itself, crew cabin layout, to piloting
sightline/visibility, as well as airlock design and landing gear--even how to
package lunar lander hardware for launch from Earth.
Also,
there's interest in exploring options for deployment of a lunar outpost in
pieces that can be packaged within the excess touchdown mass of a lunar
lander.
Orchestrating
all this effort is NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD), led
by former shuttle astronaut, Scott Horowitz.
ESMD's
mantra is straightforward: "Safe, sustained, affordable human and robotic
exploration of the Moon, Mars, and beyond ... for less than one percent of the
federal budget."
Several new twists to
NASA's Moon strategy were issued by Horowitz late last month.
For one, the Robotic Lunar
Exploration Program has been renamed the Lunar Precursor and Robotic Program
(LPRP). The LPRP office will be located at the Marshall Space Flight Center in
Huntsville, Alabama. A new Lunar Lander Project Office will also be located at
Marshall. This office will be responsible for performing early studies and
developing requirements for the Lunar Surface Access Module (LSAM).
These changes, Horowitz
stated, will allow a greater synergy between the development of the overall
architecture for the Moon, precursor activities needed for the Constellation
Systems, and their direct interrelationship with eventual lunar surface
activities.
Lay that infrastructure
Regarding the shuffling of Moon plans, Kelly Humphries, a NASA spokesperson at Johnson Space
Center said that any changes in internal NASA organization should not affect
the recently issued Request For Information. "NASA will continue to
actively seek input from industry and academia, wherever the lander project
office is located."
NASA's
Connolly said the space agency has begun focusing on what to do once on the
Moon. Part of that is getting all the pieces of hardware in place.
"We
need to lay that infrastructure...first at the Moon and then to Mars...for the
scientists and the commercial developers to follow. That is the fundamental
role of government...to pay for things too expensive for anybody else to afford,"
Connolly observed. "Also, the role of the government is to get out of the way
when those other folks show up."
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