Advisory group skeptical of NASA lunar exploration plans

[Elderberry]

Space News by Jeff Foust — November 16, 2018

NASA’s plans to return humans to the surface of the moon within 10 years got a chilly reception from an advisory group Nov. 15, who called on the agency to accelerate that timeframe and reconsider development of the Gateway facility in lunar orbit.

At the meeting of the National Space Council’s Users’ Advisory Group at NASA Headquarters here, Tom Cremins, associate administrator for strategy and plans at the agency, provided an overview of the NASA “Exploration Campaign,” the high-level approach it plans to undertake to implement Space Policy Directive 1.

That campaign involves development of the lunar Gateway, featuring modules from NASA and international and commercial partners. NASA also plans to develop “human-scale” landers, starting with a descent stage that can be tested at the moon as soon as 2024.

A concluding slide from his presentation outlined NASA’s proposed achievements by 2028 under this campaign. A bulleted list of milestones included “Returned humans to the lunar surface,” underlined for emphasis. That plan, he noted, is notional and depends on budgets, but if NASA’s budget remains stable, with inflationary growth only, “we think we basically can do all this.”

Some committee members, though, criticized the plan as not being ambitious enough. “Personally, I think 2028 for humans on the moon, that’s 10 years from now. It just seems like it’s so far off,” said former astronaut Eileen Collins. “We can do it sooner.”

“This comes across as having no sense of urgency,” said Harrison Schmitt, the Apollo 17 astronaut. “I think there should be a sense of urgency.” The pace of the proposed program, he said, didn’t match what took place under Apollo. “I think of launching Saturn 5s every two months and you’re barely going to launch them every two years,” he said of the Space Launch System.

More: https://spacenews.com/advisory-group-skeptical-of-nasa-lunar-exploration-plans/