Skeptical Advisory Group Regarding NASA's Lunar Exploration Plans

WASHINGTON – On November 15, an advisory group asked NASA to return humans to the surface of the Moon in space. They also asked the agency to accelerate this schedule and reconsider the development of Gateway's lunar orbit facilities.

At the meeting of the National Space Board's User Advisory Group at NASA Headquarters, Tom Cremins, Associate Administrator in charge of Strategy and Plans of the Agency, presented an overview of the NASA's "exploration campaign", the high-level approach that she intends to undertake. implement the Space Policy Directive 1.

This campaign involves the development of the Lunar Gateway, including modules from NASA and international and commercial partners. NASA also plans to develop "human-sized" landing gear, starting with a descent phase that can be tested on the Moon as early as 2024.

The final slide of his presentation presents the achievements proposed by NASA by 2028 as part of this campaign. A bulleted list of milestones included "Humans Returned to the Lunar Surface," underlined for their emphasis. This plan, he noted, is theoretical and budget-driven, but while NASA's budget remains stable, with inflationary growth only, "we think we can basically do all that."

Some members of the committee criticized the plan for not being ambitious enough. "Personally, I think 2028 for humans on the moon, it's 10 years from now. It looks like it's so far, "said former astronaut Eileen Collins. "We can do it sooner."

"It seems to have no sense of urgency," said Harrison Schmitt, Apollo 17 's astronaut. "I think there should be a sense of urgency. ;emergency." The pace of the proposed program, he said, did not match what had happened under Apollo. "I'm thinking of launching the Saturn 5 every two months and you're just going to launch them every two years," he said of the Space Launch System.

Cremins said the pace of the program was dictated by budgets and the desire to create a sustainable program that could survive in the long run. "We would like to do it tomorrow if we could," he said. An "accelerated program", however, could cause a lot of damage that would make it unsustainable and lose our skills in other areas.

Others have contested the development of the bridge. "I am quite opposed to the bridge," said Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin. Using the gateway as a transit zone for robotic or human missions on the lunar surface is "absurd", he explained. "Why would you want to send a crew to an intermediate point in the space, take a landing gear there and get off?"

Aldrin said he liked the concept "Moon Direct" proposed by Robert Zubrin, the engineer best known for his advocacy for Mars missions, involving lunar landers moving from Earth orbit to the lunar surface and vice versa. He added that he had similar ideas, although not as refined as those of Zubrin.

Later in the meeting, a former NASA administrator stepped in. Mike Griffin, currently Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, met with the committee to discuss issues related to national security, but was questioned about his views regarding the bridge and the gateway. 2028 objective for humans on the lunar surface

"I think 2028 is so late that it's necessary to not even be worthy to be on the table," he said, noting that he was only giving his opinion personal. "Such a date does not demonstrate that the United States is a leader in anything."

"The architecture that has been put in place, placing a footbridge before the shoes on the moon, is, from the perspective of a space systems engineer – which is the only thing in my life in which I've been good – a stupid architecture, "he said. instead of moving "deliberately" to return to the Moon and access its resources. "Gateway is useful when, but not before, they make propellant on the moon and send it to a lunar orbit deposit."

Griffin spoke of the specter that China brought humans to the moon before NASA could return to the lunar surface. "My opinion is that if the Chinese wanted it, they could very easily be on the moon six, seven or eight years from now, no problem," he said. "They never seem to be in a hurry. They play long games, so I'm not saying they'll be on the moon in six to eight years, but if they wanted to, I think they could. "

"For them to be back on the moon when the United States can not go back to the moon, I think it's a travesty," he added. "I think that such an event would bring about a realignment of geopolitical thinking that would be extremely damaging to the United States."

These comments are not the first time Griffin has hinted that China will land humans on the moon before the United States can send people back there. "I personally think that China will be back on the moon before us. I think when that happens, Americans will not like it, but they will just not like it, "he said in a September 2007 speech.

At the time, Griffin was a director of NASA, charged with carrying out the Vision for Space Exploration, which foresaw a human return to the Moon by 2020. The Obama Administration Ended this program in 2010, but so far, China has not yet sent humans beyond. Its manned space flight program focuses on the development of a space station, which should be operational in the early 2020s.