NASA is to take astronauts back to the Moon by 2020 in line with a mission plan which is remarkably similar to that of Apollo.
In 2004, NASA received a White House mandate to take astronauts back to the Moon by 2020 (illustration). Credit: NASA
At NASA headquarters in Washington on 14 January 2004, George W. Bush, then President of the United States, announced that American astronauts would walk on the lunar surface again by 2020. The message was, however, confused by the political climate at the time, many observers even believing that it was only a communications operation aiming to take people’s minds off the war in Iraq for a while.
An extended repeat of Apollo? And yet, NASA’s return to the Moon is slowly taking shape. In, April 2005, George W. Bush, re-elected President of the United States at the end of 2004, appointed Michael Griffin as head of the American Agency. The new administrator’s mandate was clear: to draw up the technical architecture for this return and to stop the space shuttle flights by 2010, once the International Space Station was finally assembled. The two are, in fact, linked, as the stopping of the space shuttle flights to the orbital complex will free the funds needed to speed up the human lunar programme without requiring a very heavy increase in the American Agency’s overall budget (approx 17 billion dollars per year, which is 0.7% of the federal budget). NASA presented their “Constellation Program” to the media in September 2005. Basically, an Ares I rocket (which recycles the principle of the space shuttle boosters for its first stage) is to lift off to position a manned spaceship named Orion in orbit around the Earth. This spaceship is a capsule, like Apollo. A second, more powerful rocket, named Ares V, is to take the Altair lunar module up into space atop a translunar injection stage. Once in orbit, this module is to dock with the Orion capsule via the translunar stage before setting off to the Moon. Although the beginning of the 2020 version of a lunar mission differs through the use of two rockets instead of just one for Apollo, the rest is identical. Once in orbit around our natural satellite, the astronauts reach the surface of the Moon aboard the Altair module whilst the Orion spaceship waits for them. When their work on the surface is completed, the new explorers use the upper part of the lunar module to rejoin the Orion capsule which then brings them back to Earth. The video below demonstrates the different phases described above.
Despite the fact that this time two rockets are needed to accomplish the work of a single Apollo Saturn V, numerous are those that refer to a “repeat Apollo” without innovation whilst others simply underline the futility of redoing what was done 40 years earlier. Michael Griffin, NASA’s administrator at the time, tersely replied that in “40 years the laws of physics have not changed”. Nevertheless, the desire to do more is clear. Constellation is able take 4 people to the surface of the Moon on every mission and not just 2 like Apollo. They will get there by means of Orion, a spaceship that will not only be bigger, but will also be equipped with more advanced computer systems such that no astronaut will have to remain on board; the computer will take over (whereas with Apollo, the third member of the lunar crew had to stay at the controls of the capsule whilst his two colleagues went down to explore the Moon).
Continue Apollo rather than repeat it 4 people on our natural satellite instead of 2 might seem a minor difference, but the advantage cannot be denied in terms of scientific productivity. We could envisage, for example, the operating of more complex instruments and laboratories. But NASA has no intention of restricting itself to this already important aspect of things.
The return to the Moon is intended to serve science and numerous projects are envisaged, like building bases to accommodate scientists. This is the prototype of an inflatable lunar habitat. Credit: NASA
The length of the 2020 version of lunar trips is targeted at 7 to 14 days (it was a maximum of 3 for the last Apollo mission in 1972). There is also the new multiplication of hours of work carried out each time so that longer, and therefore, potentially more elaborate tasks become possible. Science will benefit from this and NASA has made this known, notably by creating its own Lunar Science Institute for the co-ordinating of all the scientific information from future missions. This is, then, a matter of continuing Apollo rather than repeating it. Let us not forget that we had to wait until the last manned lunar mission (Apollo 17) for a scientist, geologist Harrison Schmitt, to explore the surface of our natural satellite. With 4 people on each flight as of 2020, we could hope that two of the crew members would, above all, be scientists (the other two being pilots). As astronaut Jean-Jacques Favier from the CNES (French Space Agency) indicates in the EnjoySpaceTV video below, Apollo was part of a prestige policy guided by the dictates of the Cold War (the United States wanting to be first on the Moon before the Russians), whereas the return intends to follow a logic dictated by science and international co-operation.
But, we should not let the apparent resemblance between Constellation and Apollo cloud the issue which is not how we are going to get to the Moon, but what we are going to do there, starting with getting to know it better. Even the origin of our natural satellite is still largely swathed in mystery. Planetologists currently favour the theory of collision: an object the size of Mars could have crashed into the Earth at the beginning of the solar system and the Moon is the resulting piece torn from our planet by the cataclysm. A hypothesis that only future missions will be able to confirm... or contradict! Then, studying the Moon, which means studying the solar system as it was at the beginning and, at the same time, understanding the origins of the Earth. Technologically speaking, the return to the Moon with its sights set on longer trips, excursions on board the new generation rovers (see the EnjoySpaceTV video below) and even the construction of a base, is preparing us for the next major step: human space flights to Mars.
True, sending astronauts to the red planet will impose its own challenges (the length of the journey for example), but the problems of logistics and protection against the radiation are the same. Once again, we are continuing Apollo rather than repeating it, as Mars was already announced as the objective to follow the Moon in the 1970’s. And what if the return to the Moon was, above all, a return to the future? A return which has already started This optimism should not, however, hide the fact that the American lunar programme is still in a precarious position for political reasons. Every year, the American Congress votes NASA’s budget and has the future of the return to the Moon in its hands. Should the budget items devoted to this company be reduced, then the whole programme would be delayed, or worse, would disappear without a trace. Actual preparations are, however, in hand in the field. One of the two space shuttle launch pads at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida is undergoing modifications so that it can accommodate the future Ares I launch vehicle. A controversial launcher as some believe that the Orion spaceship (the development of which is progressing) could be placed in orbit in a less costly and safer manner by modifying existing rockets such as the Delta IV or the Atlas V belonging to United Launch Alliance, an association of aerospace giants Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Rockets which have up until now only launched unmanned spacecraft. In the midst of this highly technical debate, it should not be forgotten that billions of dollars in the form of contracts are at stake!
The Ares I-X rocket undergoing preparations at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Ares I-X is a test flight rocket for the different elements of the future Ares I rocket launcher. Critics say that this test will obviously be incomplete as this rocket is quite different from the final launcher. Credit: NASA
Whilst the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter probe represents NASA’s return (robotic) around the Moon (see this Enjoy Space article), a panel of experts is meeting at this very moment to discuss the future of American human space flights. This Review of the US Human Space Flight Plans Committee is organised by NASA at the request of the White House. It is to give its opinion not only concerning the possible continuation of the United States participation in the International Space Station after 2016 but also concerning the return to the Moon. And although it is clearly stated in its statutes that this committee will only give opinions, it is obvious that they constitute entrance examinations for the “Back-to-the-Moon Program”. The verdict should be known before the end of the summer.
This is the mythical rocket par excellence, the one that launched Sputnik, the first satellite and Gagarin, the first man in space. The CSG, Guiana Space Centre, is now one of its launch bases: a historic achievement.
The first episode of this famous science-fiction series was broadcast in September 1966. NASA has often made references to these programmes, as in the case of the space shuttle Enterprise, which had the same name as the spaceship in the series.
50 years ago on 5 May 1961, a few weeks after Gagarin, American Alan Shepard reached space. Several years later, he was to walk on the Moon, summarising as it were the race in which the Soviet Union and the United States were competing.
