After nearly two years of heavy thinking, NASA unveiled its plans on Monday to take astronauts back to the moon. It could have saved itself the trouble, as early reports suggest the designers haven鈥檛 added much to the Apollo missions that ended 32 years ago.
Lacking the mighty Saturn V rocket, which took the Apollo astronauts to the moon, the plan calls for various components of the space shuttle launch system to be shuffled, stacked and doubled up to provide the boost for crews and cargo. As for the crew capsule, expect an Apollo knock-off, but larger.
Absent from the blueprints are any plans for a nuclear electric generator, a pressurised rover, a permanent moon base and future manned missions to Mars. Instead, NASA will fly four-person crews to the moon every year, beginning in 2018. The first landing sites may be where the Apollo 18, 19 and 20 crews would have touched down had the programme not been cancelled. Apollo fell by the wayside just three years after the first moon landing, eclipsed by growing domestic unrest over the Vietnam war and other issues closer to home.
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Since announcing ambitious space exploration plans in January 2004, President Bush has been largely silent about NASA鈥檚 future. It will take something more than that to make the new plan a reality, according to Democratic US congressman Bart Gordon: 鈥淚t鈥檚 clear that strong presidential leadership will be needed.鈥�
