NASA is already working on vehicles, habitats and even a communications and energy network for the Moon in search of an objective: to colonize it.
The next time NASA goes to the Moon , it will try to stay. Under the Artemis program, the US space agency plans to maintain a human presence, for the first time in history, on a celestial body other than Earth.
But building a lunar base is no small challenge. Power generators, vehicles and habitats are needed. And the space industry is already racing to meet those technological challenges.
“It’s the Super Bowl of engineering,” says Neal Davis, systems engineering lead for the Lunar Terrain Vehicle at space company Dynetics.
Dynetics revealed its prototype last month at the Colorado Springs Space Symposium.
However, it will be after the Artemis missions – 7 from here – that they will start looking to “add permanent habitation on the surface,” said Jim Free, NASA associate administrator .
The Artemis 3 mission, the first to land on the moon, will not happen before the end of this decade , so the habitats would start to be built only after 2030.
The base will likely comprise multiple sites, he added, to diversify space exploration goals and provide flexibility for moon landings.