In a welcome outbreak of realism 鈥� underlined by 聽鈥� space agencies and rocket firms have been ramping up visions for lunar bases.
The good news is that this apparently kicks the fashionable but faintly absurd idea of attempting to colonise Mars ahead of the moon into the long grass. There have been mounting doubts about NASA鈥檚 stated aim of getting humans on the Red Planet first, in the 2030s.
What were they thinking of? The idea of people on Mars as a priority found favour a decade ago when some space experts, including the Planetary Society, began pushing the unconvincing notion of Mars before the moon.
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It added up to this odd statement: we should forget about learning how to live on another world by doing so on our nearby moon, where we can iron out the huge technical, social and psychological challenges of habitat life just three days away.
Instead, they opined, head straight for the surface of Mars, a six-month, radiation-zapped trip, where crews would be beyond rescue. Notable among them is private rocket company SpaceX and its wannabe Martian boss Elon Musk, who is on record as saying he 鈥渨ants to die on Mars but not on impact鈥�.
Lunar village
A critical mass now looks to be behind a 21st-century human moon shot first. In late September, at the International Astronautical Congress in Adelaide, Australia, talk of Mars got second billing. Instead, a clutch of lunar plans took centre stage, with the European Space Agency (ESA) saying that building ahead of a Mars colony makes the most sense.
It is pushing for a permanent, sustainable human presence on the moon. ESA is a partner in NASA鈥檚 new Orion spacecraft, which is designed to carry crew beyond Earth orbit 鈥� so it has access to the means, too.
Likewise, Russian agency Roscosmos and NASA revealed they are in talks to jointly develop the , a space station they hope to position near the moon as a staging post for exploring the solar system.
This was capped last week at a meeting of the US National Space Council, under the chairmanship of Pence, which and committed the US to 鈥渢he return of humans to the moon for long-term exploration鈥� 鈥� and not this time, Pence stressed, just to leave 鈥渇ootprints and flags鈥�.
Shoot for the moon
So what of Mars cheerleader SpaceX? It too was at the congress in Australia. Of course, it served up the big-ticket visions its fans expected: a massive all-purpose rocket capable of 30-minute New York-to-Shanghai style city-to-city flights and mass colonisation of Mars.
But we also got something unexpected: an admission from it that a moon base is needed. 鈥淚t鈥檚 2017. I mean, we should have a lunar base by now,鈥� Musk said in his keynote address. In an , he shared a CGI mock-up of what he dubbed a SpaceX 鈥淢oonbase Alpha鈥� 鈥� named after the base in the TV series Space 1999.
We should get off-world living right before venturing too far 鈥� and the moon is the best place to do that, with crews close enough to be rescued if necessary. To do it anywhere further away would verge on the masochistic.
