NASA may be going back to the Moon. Or maybe not. Despite months of speculation and rumors about potential changes in the agency’s “Journey to Mars” plans for human exploration of Mars, so far there’s been no announcement of any major changes, other than the less-than-surprising news that the administration plans to cancel the Asteroid Redirect Mission.
However, other space agencies remain interested in sending spacecraft, and perhaps people, to the Moon in the coming years. That interest was on display earlier this month at the 33rd Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado, an event that has increasingly taken on an international flavor, including dropping “National” from its name a few years ago.
But sometimes it can seem too international. A panel session at the conference April 4 featured leaders from a number of national space agencies. That number has been growing over the years, and this year it meant 15 space agency heads took to the stage in the main convention hall at the Broadmoor, from major agencies like NASA, ESA, and Roscosmos to smaller national agencies from Romania and Vietnam. The panel was so big that the agency leaders were arranged in two rows on the stage: a choir preaching a gospel of cooperation and collaboration to the conference attendees.
The panel was so large that, rather than give the same question to all speakers, moderator Bob Walker instead directed questions to various subsets of the full panel. To one subset he posed the question: what are your aspirations for the exploration of the Moon?
One of the panelists for that question, as it turned out, was Robert Lightfoot, acting administrator of NASA. He mentioned the agency’s plans to, in the 2020s, develop a “Deep Space Gateway” in cislunar space. That gateway is intended to prepare for human missions to Mars, but he left open the option of using it for human missions to the Moon as well by partners.
“The goal here is to see what we can prove out in the area around the Moon, work with our international partners on what we do at the surface of the Moon, and work with our public-private partnerships here in the US to understand the niche areas they would like to attack when it comes to the Moon,” he said.
Ger Nieuwpoort, director of the Netherlands Space Office, said his country’s plans for the Moon were tied to those of the European Space Agency, with a particular interest in science applications. “Science is an important driver for the Netherlands,” he said. That included, he said, the prospects for doing astronomy from the far side of the Moon.
By contrast, Roberto Battiston, president of the Italian Space Agency and another member of ESA, took less of an interest in the Moon except as a way to support human missions to Mars. “The Moon can be very useful as an intermediate step to learn how to stay for long periods in space,” he said. “But the real future goal, for the long term, is really getting to the next challenge, which is Mars.”
While he wasn’t on the panel that got the question about lunar exploration, ESA director general Jan Wörner did put in a plug later in the session for his “Moon Village” concept of an international lunar base, which he said was essential before humans could go to Mars.
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