NASA Moon Base would run on Solar Panels
The space agency plans to return astronauts to the Moon around 2020. Agency officials first described proposals last December for a polar lunar base powered by near constant sunlight on solar panels.
Earlier proposals to carry small habitation modules to the Moon in stages might be supplanted by a proposal that would heave a single large module to the Moon on an unmanned cargo ship, Doug Cooke, the NASA official leading the lunar study group, said.
The new rover would not be much larger than the buggies the Apollo astronauts drove, but would be pressurized so that astronauts could drive in shirt sleeves and be protected from radiation — probably by a layer of water in the rover’s body, said Geoff Yoder, an official working on the lunar plans. To explore on foot, astronauts would put on spacesuits and leave the vehicle, Mr. Yoder said. The cost? “More than a Ferrari,” he joked.
The scientists said they had also discussed nuclear energy as a power supply for the habitat, since that might be necessary for building a successful encampment on Mars. But, Mr. Cooke said, the initial power source for the lunar base “should be solar.” They have also discussed making the lunar lander and habitat mobile so that the base could be moved for exploration of other areas in what is being called “super sortie” mode, he said.
The updated plans were discussed at a conference of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in Long Beach, Calif.
Related News

N.S. joins Western Climate Initiative for tech support for emissions plan
HALIFAX - Nova Scotia is yet to set targets for its new cap and trade regime to reduce greenhouse gases, but the province announced Monday that it has joined the Western Climate Initiative Inc. -- a non-profit corporation formed to provide administrative and technical services to states and provinces with emissions trading programs.
Environment Minister Iain Rankin said joining the initiative would allow the province to use its IT system to manage and track its new cap and trade program.
Rankin said the province can join without trading greenhouse gas emission allowances with other jurisdictions -- California, Quebec, and Ontario are currently…