HOUSTON,
Texas - NASA's new goal of establishing a 21st century Moon base will require
bridge building while mending fences between space scientists and exploration
technologists.
Space
agency planners foresee a step-by-step, module by module buildup of a lunar
outpost, one that starts with four-person crews making several seven-day visits
to the Moon. That initial encampment will later be fortified by power supplies,
rovers and additional housing.
The
first lunar live-in mission would begin by 2020, followed by 180-day stayovers
to prep for journeys to Mars.
As
space engineers hammer out a proposed lunar architecture, the call is coming for
lunar scientists to aid in picking the best site for a base. Scientific
direction is also needed to define what human explorers can uniquely do on the
Moon. Also, there's need for scientists to help catalog and evaluate how best
to utilize lunar resources so explorers can "live off the land" in support of
long-term visits to the Moon.
At
the 2nd Space Exploration Conference, held here December 4-6, NASA provided a
status report on implementing the Vision for Space Exploration--one that will
be measured by effectively employing both science knowledge and technological
know-how.
Volley of Moon probes
NASA's
robotic Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)--due to fly in late 2008--is seen
as a key spacecraft that will chart the Moon as never before. Among its duties,
LRO will hone in on site selection of a lunar outpost.
But
LRO is but one of a volley of Moon probes being readied for their respective
liftoff. Next year, China's lunar orbiter--Chang'e 1--as well as Japan's SELenological and ENgineering Explorer (SELENE) will be bound for the Moon. India's Chandrayaan-1 is to follow in early 2008.
Each
lunar spacecraft can relay noteworthy science data--a collective bonanza of
new information to promote fruitful human visits to the crater-pocked Moon.
The
bridging of science with NASA's exploration rebound to the Moon was highlighted
by Shana Dale, NASA Deputy Administrator.
Dale
said that scientists from the European Space Agency, India, Japan, Russia and the United States recently met to strategize robotic Moon exploration plans. One
objective of the gathering, she noted, was provided a technical basis for
potential cooperative observations using NASA's LRO with other international
missions.
The
LRO Science Project Working Group, Dale said, is also endeavoring to create a
common coordinate system with international missions to the Moon, as well as
propose and discuss standard calibration targets for all lunar missions to
observe.
The
intention of these joint discussions is to foster "openness and flexibility in
all parts of this evolving lunar architecture," Dale added.
Lunar data restoration
In
other lunar science news, Colleen Hartman, NASA Science Mission Directorate
Deputy Associate Administrator, announced creation of a Lunar Advanced Science
and Exploration Research (LASER) program, shaped around four areas: basic
science, exploration science, data analysis and lunar data restoration.
Moving
outward to the red planet, Hartman added, the robotic Mars Science Laboratory
is being readied for sendoff in 2009. That large rover will make the first
radiation measurements from the planet's surface, she said, fact-checking
measurements that are essential to the safety of any future expeditionary crew
that lands on Mars.
Overall,
in Moon, Mars and beyond exploration, "we are going today with the human spirit
in our robots and our machines and our telescopes. Tomorrow we'll go with human
beings," Hartman concluded.
Moon: school for exploration
"The
Moon is a school for exploration...the springboard and stepping stone for the
rest of the solar system," said Paul Spudis, senior scientist at The John
Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.
"The
Moon is a major scientific target--not only to learn about its own history and
evolution but the history and evolution of the planets as well, Spudis said.
Among
the many virtues of returning to the Moon, Spudis underscored its value as a
platform to look out into the universe.
"It
is possible to erect on the Moon instruments to do observations in areas of the
spectrum and with capabilities that you cannot achieve from the Earth and even,
in some cases, perhaps with free flyers in space," Spudis suggested.
As
example, Spudis observed that the farside of the Moon is valuable scientific
real estate. Equipment planted there is shielded from low-frequency radio noise
crackling off the Earth. That being the case, he continued, the sky can be
mapped at low radio frequencies with high payoff, yielding more clues about the
origin and evolution of the universe.
New territory
Spudis
said that one of the key goals of the Moon, Mars and beyond vision is to learn
how to live off the resources of space, specifically the assets of the Moon as
the first step. This skill is also dubbed In-Situ Resource Utilization or ISRU
for short.
"Fundamentally,
this is something we don't know how to do yet...this is new territory. It's
something that NASA hasn't done. So there is actually a lot of science involved
with this...it's not just engineering," Spudis said. "I call this applied
science...and it's essential to both understanding how to do ISRU and how to use
ISRU to maximum benefit."
Science
also serves exploration by basically providing the information needed to go
live on the planets, extract what's needed, and create a spacefaring
capability, Spudis concluded.
But
as NASA's exploration ideas zoom, budget realities have caused a disturbance in
the space science force.
Patched up...anxieties removed
Significant
funds are required to get NASA's exploration train to the Moon, Mars and beyond
on track. Meanwhile, the International Space Station and flying space shuttles
out to 2010 are big ticket projects too, demanding big cash.
"NASA
and the science community need to work together to define an achievable space
science and exploration program," said Andrew Christensen, Space Technology
Chief Scientist for Northrop Grumman.
Underscoring
the recent angst of space scientists seeing budget cuts, project slippage or
outright cancellation, "it was a shock to many in the science community...not all
of them have recovered," Christensen advised.
Christensen
urged a reexamination of the science community and its relationship to NASA.
"That needs to be patched up and some of these anxieties removed."
Proof of concept
Noel
Hinners, a former space science chief at NASA and retired vice president of
Lockheed Martin, suggested that a jointly managed science office should be
embedded within the space agency's center of human exploration planning.
That
management model worked well, Hinners added, not only for Apollo, but several
follow-on human spaceflight projects. "It has had a 'proof of concept'...if you
will," he told SPACE.com.
"There
are major issues...and most of them frankly do come right down to the budget
issues," Hinners advised. "The total NASA program is under-funded, in my view,
for the schedule and goals that they are currently committed to...and this adds
pressure."
Apollo
was fueled by a reasonable budget, with plenty of money to foot the bill for additional
science that was enabled by human exploration, Hinners said.
Still,
the exploration program of today contrasted to Apollo is different.
"There
is much more than science from day one," Hinners said, including preparation
for Mars and development of crew habitation facilities. "Science on a relative
basis plays a smaller role in lunar exploration today than it did in Apollo."
Hinners
said that NASA's go-ahead to plant a base on the Moon provides "an interesting
new opportunity" for scientists
"Indeed,
some of the science you want means bouncing around point-to-point in a sortie
mode. But clearly there are other parts of science that require a lot of
detailed work at a single site. Critical to the science community is site
selection for the outpost...where the total array of exploration goals can be
accomplished while maximizing the science return."
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