Four astronauts will travel to the moon for a week as early as 2018 using a new rocket system that NASA chief Michael Griffin calls "Apollo on steroids."
This week, Griffin laid out the space agency's plans to spend $104 billion for a return trip to the lunar surface. The plan for the first trip, which the White House recently approved after months of wrangling, includes building a new crew launcher by 2014. The launcher, combining expendable rocket and space shuttle components, would initially carry crew or cargo to the international space station. Then it would be converted to a lunar-bound vehicle, one that Griffin says would be 10 times safer than the current shuttle. A heavy-lift vehicle would follow to provide components for a moon landing and for possible flights to Mars.
At a press conference this week at NASA headquarters, Griffin pledged that "not one thin dime" of science money would be diverted into the space-flight effort. The lunar focus "is a huge opportunity for science," he said, adding, "I believe the global space science community will want to take advantage of that." Lawmakers say they will want far more details on funding; Griffin says savings will come from scaling back the current space-flight program.
