NASA Getting Serious About Moon Landings

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine speaks at the opening of an industry forum on the agency's lunar exploration plans, Thursday, Feb. 14, 2019 at NASA Headquarters in Washington. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

NASA is accelerating the pace of its solicitation of industry proposals for landers to carry scientific payloads and eventually humans to the lunar surface. The first payloads may be landed on the lunar surface by commercially developed landers by the end of this year under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.

NASA also issued a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) to solicit industry proposals for landing systems capable of carrying humans to and from the Moon's surface from the Gateway station that NASA plans to place in the vicinity of the Moon. The first human arrival is projected for 2028. Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA associate administrator for human exploration and operations, acknowledged that proposals outside  of the agency's defined architecture may be considered separately from the BAA (with SpaceX's Starship project likely in mind).

These initiatives come at a timely moment as NASA has gained a healthy budget increase as part of the federal spending deal approved last week. They also come this year as NASA, the nation, and the world prepare to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the first humans landing on the Moon.

Farewell to Some Robotic Explorers

This image from Opportunity was the first picture I ever posted on this blog on Jan. 25, 2004.

The Opportunity Mars Rover was officially declared dead by NASA last week, after months of attempts to revive it from the effects of a global Martian dust storm. Fifteen years ago, Opportunity and its sister rover Spirit (lost several years ago) landed on Mars, each having a design life of 90 days, and began their scientific exploration. Over the years, the twin rovers revealed some fascinating information about Mars past and present, including evidence of ancient bodies of water on the surface.

NASA recently said goodbye to two other robotic explorers. The Kepler Space Telescope discovered thousands of exoplanets (planets that circle stars other than our Sun) while staring at just a tiny portion of the sky. The Dawn spacecraft explored two of the largest asteroids in the Solar System, contributing to knowledge of how the Solar System developed and of potential resources available in the asteroids. These three robotic explorers have completed, even exceeded, their missions and have paved the way for new explorers and eventual human expansion into space.