NASA's return to the Moon, scheduled for 2020, may possibly be delayed. A report, requested by President Obama and prepared by a panel of scientists and experts, lays out the current and future plans for manned space travel.
There is a dilemma with the current state of the space program. Namely, the next generation of space orbiters, the Orion capsule, is scheduled to be completed in 2017, a year after the international space station is set to be retired. And the rest of the lunar landing project would not be ready by 2017, eliminating the need for such a capsule until at least 2020.
So, the panel suggested that instead of continuing to invest money into a program that could sit idle for years, NASA should invest money to develop a smaller capsule that could fly on an already existing rocket. This would allow NASA to transport both commercial and scientific equipment to low Earth orbit (LEO).
The panel also suggested that the timetable that had been laid out for visiting the Moon as well as Mars may not be ideal. Particularly there would be a large upfront cost to develop the technology needed.
Instead, the panel suggested integrating technologies as they became available -- lowering the costs over time -- and planning missions to asteroids, or even orbiting Mars, before planning landing missions. Under this scenario, a landing mission to the Moon would still be possible by the mid 2020s.
Image Credit: NASA
Comments
Why is it, that after 40 years of our moon landing we can’t pick up where we left off. It is as if we have to start all over again from day one to try to get someone back to the moon. Have we or did we ever have the technology to get to the moon in the first place? I want to believe. but now I’m not sure. I am retired and bought a very expensive telescope(over $1000.00) and I can not see on a clear night any of our moon artifacts.(hummmm) We as Americans need Proof after all these years.. Hollywood
Hollywood, I see your point. But you need to remember that NASA is not just building a new lander for the Moon, but for all future landing missions (Mars, asteroids, etc.). So using the same old 40 year old technology would not be sufficient for long term viability.
As for your concern about the validity of the previous Moon landings, I can assure you that they did in fact take plance. I am planning an article series to address people’s concerns, so keep an eye out.
As for you spicific question, its really simply a matter of simple optics. Even using the most powerful telescopes in existence, we could not resolve items the sizes of those left by previous missions. Hubble, for instance, can only resolve features on the Moon larger than buildings (we obviously never left anything that large behind). However, recent unmanned missions to the Moon (or probes imply going past) have taken images of the landing sites and those images are on NASAs site. I hope this helps!