A NASA-funded study (PDF) has establish that the cost of lunar
missions could be reduced by a factor of 10 using some special techniques – and
it could also help in starting colonies on Mars. The wide-ranging NexGen Space
study by the National Space Society (NSS) and the Space Frontier Foundation
(SFF) said that partnerships with private firms could send humans to the Moon
for $10 billion (£6.4 billion), rather than the previously projected $100 billion
(£64 billion) that had turned off potential supporters. Using fuel sourced from
the Moon – specifically water and hydrogen – could also significantly reduce
the cost of space travel further into the Solar System. NSS Executive Committee
Chair Mark Hopkins said in a statement “A factor of ten reduction in cost
changes everything,” The aim of the study was to see if public-private
partnerships and other methods could effect in a low-cost and low-risk method
to send humans to the Moon while helping future missions to Mars, called as
Evolvable Lunar Architecture (ELA).
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| Image credit: Colonizing the Moon might not be so difficult after all. NASA |
The research points to NASA’s effective investments in private
spaceflight so far through its COTS and CRS programs. By 2017, two crewed
spacecraft are set to launch as an outcome of the subsequent Commercial CrewProgram – SpaceX’s manned Dragon capsule and Boeing’s CST-100. Heavy-lift
rockets are also in manufacturing phase, especially SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy and
United Launch Alliance's (ULA) upcoming Vulcan rocket that could be used to send
astronauts there without depending on NASA’s costly Space Launch System. In almost five to seven years, the research
says the U.S. could send astronauts to the Moon for $10 billion (£6.4 billion),
less than $2 billion (£1.3 billion) a year. In next 10 to 12 years, it says
that a four-person industrial base on the Moon could be active, which would
require $40 billion (£26 billion), slightly less than $4 billion (£2.6 billion)
a year.
Both of these suggestions could be covered by NASA’s present
deep space human spaceflight budget, which almost about $4 billion a year.
The study also suggest producing an International Lunar
Authority, “modelled after CERN,” to achieve the combined business and
technical risks of lunar missions. It said “A permanent commercial lunar base
might substantially pay for its operations by exporting propellant to lunar
orbit for sale to NASA and others to send humans to Mars, thus enabling the
economic development of the Moon at a small marginal cost,"
Right now, NASA does not have plans to send humans to the
Moon. It is using its Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) – sending humans to an
asteroid – as a cheaper stepping stone which could help sending humans to Mars.
But this study follows another by the National Research Council last year that proposes
maybe a return to the Moon would be a better option, and it may even be cheaper.
