As the world observes the 40th anniversary of the historic moon landingon July 20, 1969, the U.S. agency that accomplished that feat isworking on plans for a return to the moon and an even more ambitiousplan to use the moon as a base for missions to Mars. The NationalAeronautics and Space Administration is gearing up for its biggestchallenge yet at a time when funding may be harder to come by.
Thousandsof people come to the Johnson Space Center in Houston every week tolook at some of the rockets and equipment developed back in the 1960sfor NASA missions. For many people, those were the glory years, whenthe astronauts walked on the moon.
But John Connolly, who workswith NASA's new lunar project based at the Johnson Space Center, seeseven greater things ahead.
"There is a new generation ofengineers and scientists now at NASA who are eager to get back to themoon to find a lot of those things that uncovered and that weare finally able to get back to the moon to explore," he said.
Enginesare firing in tests already under way for the powerful new rocketsNASA hopes to use in its Constellation Program, which involvesreturning to the moon within ten years to establish bases. The missionswill count on a much larger lunar landing vehicle and mechanical roversthat can transport both astronauts and equipment around the surface ofthe orb.
John Connolly says there is now evidence that there maybe water, in the form of ice, at the moon's poles. In addition, he saysstudy of material brought back from the moon's surface four decades agoshows the availability of oxygen that perhaps can be extracted from therocks using solar energy.
"If you can make all the oxygen thatyou need at a place like the moon and not have to bring it all the wayfrom earth, you have cut by a factor of 80 percent the mass of stuffyou have to bring with you in order to survive in space," he said.
Butsuch plans, ambitious as they are, disappoint many space enthusiasts,including the second man to step foot on the moon, in the Apollo 11mission, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin. At a recent appearance here in Houston,he expressed skepticism of the plan that will take another 10 yearsjust to get back to where he was 40 years ago.
"Surely there is something not quite right. Maybe we are implementing this wonderful vision in not so smart a way," he said.
Othersare critical of NASA's plan to abandon the space shuttle next year toconcentrate all efforts on the new program. They fear public enthusiasmmay wane if years go by without any major missions.
Businessexperts also wonder how a government agency like NASA will fare at atime when the U.S. budget deficit has reached record levels. ChrisBronk, a technology analyst at Rice University, and Tory Gattis, acomputer systems architect with Houston's Open Teams software company,recently wrote an editorial suggesting NASA needs to be more like aninnovative private company.
Chris Bronk says government funding may fall short in the years ahead.
"Whenyou look at the manned space mission goals of getting back to the moon,getting to Mars, there is a mandate there that does not equate to theresources that are already provided," he said.
The answer, says Gattis, is innovation.
"Giventhe realistic government budgets going forward, if NASA is going toaccomplish these great inspirational things, they are going to needthis level of innovation that makes space travel become cheaper,easier, faster on a regular basis," he explained.
NASA officialssay they are aware of the budget restraints. John Connolly says theagency is trying to carry out the mandates from the president and U.S.Congress relying on expertise from within and from experts around theworld.
"It starts internally at NASA. We have a lot of peoplewho are really smart and who have thought about it for many, manyyears, like myself. So that is where it starts, but it quickly grows tobe a project where we get the input from lots and lots of smart peopleout there," he said.
NASA hopes to do a manned test of the Orionlaunch vehicle by 2015, with the goal of sending a mission to the moonby the year 2020. The , which is to be flown into space on the newAres rocket, includes a launch abort system that will allow the crewmodule to separate and return to earth in case of a malfunction. The lunar landing craft is being developed to carry up to fourastronauts to the moon's surface and allow them to stay there for up toa week.