NASA administrator Jared Isaacman (left) announced plans to establish a permanent presence on the moon during a press conference at the agency’s headquarters in Washington DC on 26 MayChip Somodevilla/Getty Images
NASA has revealed details of its plans to build a permanent base on the moon. Initially, this will see autonomous rovers and hopping drones scouting out the lunar surface. Down the line, the plan is for astronauts to build a future lunar home, slated to be hundreds of square kilometres in size.
Plans for a lunar base have been part of NASA’s Artemis programme for years, but its main focus has been landing astronauts on the moon for the first time since the 1970s. The human space-flight part of the project has been successful so far, with the Artemis II mission sending four astronauts on a path around the moon and back to Earth in April this year. But until recently, NASA had released fewer concrete details about a timeline for building a moon base.
On 26 May, it announced that the first three missions to build a lunar base will be targeted for this year, with at least a further nine to be announced before 2027. The overall programme will consist of three phases, with the first lasting until 2029 to “secure reliable access” to the moon’s surface. The second will last until 2032 for “initial moon base operating capability”, and the actual base itself is to be built near the lunar south pole in the third and final phase, lasting up to 2036.
