Buildiong a base on the Moon, Finally?

[Houston1stWordOnTheMoon]

It is my belief that we should have been focussing on America building a base on the Moon instead of that ridiculous INTL Space Station. That thing is nothing more than a glorified pile of space junk designed to make certain countries of the world look good while being built on the US tax payers dollars.

NASA plans to put a base on the moon by 2020

WASHINGTON - NASA plans to surpass the Apollo missions by establishing a base on the moon that could lead to a permanent human presence on the lunar surface, space agency officials said Monday.

For the first time since President Bush announced in 2004 that American astronauts would return to the moon, NASA has specified what it plans to do once there. No human has set foot on the moon since 1972. That final stay, the longest, lasted three days.

IMAGE GALLERY: NASA's vision for the moon

Under the plans outlined Monday, human habitation of the moon would begin in 2020 with four-person crews that would stay for a week. Visits would lengthen until astronauts could live on the base for up to six months at a stretch. This could occur as early as 2024.

The Apollo missions of the 1960s and 1970s "were limited," said Doug Cooke, NASA's deputy chief of exploration. "We're looking at this more permanent capability that will allow longer stays and a lot of achievements."

Cooke and other officials declined to say precisely how much the program would cost or how it would be funded. Deputy NASA administrator Shana Dale said the costs of building a moon colony would not require an increase in the NASA budget, currently $17 billion per year. Part of the money would come from the retirement of the space shuttle, planned for mid-2010, Dale said.

Last year, NASA administrator Michael Griffin said that the first voyage back to the moon would cost $100 billion. That includes the price for NASA's new Orion spaceship, a pumped-up version of the Apollo capsule, and the Ares rocket to carry the Orion into space.

Skeptics, such as the Congressional Budget Office and the Government Accountability Office, have warned that NASA is unlikely to be able to mount such an ambitious effort with so little money. Already Griffin has cut NASA's funding of space science and aeronautics research to help pay for the moon program and the high costs of the space shuttle and the International Space Station.

A moon base would help NASA decide what's needed to send people to Mars, said David Portree, a former NASA historian. But he warned that the expense could sink the whole project..................

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20061205/...onthemoonby2020

[westguy76]

I'd like them to get somebody walking on the moon in my lifetime. But I am sceptical that they can pull it off. Strange they need 14 years of planning and trial runs when we "landed" on the"moon" what 35 years ago when computing technology was so new. How long did it take them to put a man on the "moon" in that program?

Looks like it was just under 10 years.

Does this seem like a huge waste of time and resources to anyone else?

Edited December 6, 2006 by westguy76

[Subdude]

Does this seem like a huge waste of time and resources to anyone else?

Yeah, kinda. To me it would make more sense to focus on robotic space exploration.

[DJ V Lawrence]

Where did all this funding for going to the moon come from. I thought they faked that decades ago

[lockmat]

Personally, I think the space program is a waste of money.

Cool, but useless.

I don't know, maybe that's my ignorance speaking. If anyone thinks so, please, enlighten me and explain why.