NASA estimates it will cost $US104 billion ($A136.64 billion) to return astronauts to the moon by 2018 in a new rocket that combines the space shuttle with the capsule of an earlier NASA era.
NASA administrator Michael Griffin, in unveiling the new lunar-exploration plan announced by US President George W Bush last year, said he was not seeking extra money and stressed that the space agency would live within its future budgets to achieve the goal.
He dismissed suggestions that reconstruction of the Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Katrina might derail the program.
"We're talking about returning to the moon in 2018. There will be a lot more hurricanes and a lot more other natural disasters to befall the United States and the world in that time, I hope none worse than Katrina," Griffin said at a news conference.
"But the space program is a long-term investment in our future.
"We must deal with our short-term problems while not sacrificing our long-term investments in our future.
"When we have a hurricane, we don't cancel the Air Force. We don't cancel the Navy. And we're not going to cancel NASA."
The $US104 billion ($A136.64 billion) price tag, spread over 13 years, represents 55 per cent of what the Apollo moon-landing program cost measured in constant dollars, Griffin said. Apollo spanned eight years.
The new space vehicle design uses shuttle-like rocket parts, an Apollo-style capsule and lander capable of carrying four people to the surface.
The rockets - there would be two, a small version for people and a bigger one for cargo - would come close in height to the 109-metre Saturn 5 moon rocket.
They would be built from shuttle booster rockets, fuel tanks and main engines, as well as moon rocket engines.
The so-called crew exploration vehicle perched on top would look very much like an Apollo capsule, albeit larger.
"Think of it as Apollo on steroids," Griffin said.
The crew exploration vehicle would replace the space shuttle, due to be retired in 2010, but not before 2012 and possibly as late as 2014 depending on the money available, Griffin said.
It could carry as many as six astronauts to the international space station.
If all goes well, the first crew would set off for the moon by 2018 - or 2020 at the latest, the president's target year.
Unlike Apollo, the new lunar lander would carry double the number of people to the surface of the moon - four - and allow them to stay up to a week, or twice as long. It also would haul considerably more cargo.
Two shuttles and 14 astronauts have been lost over 114 flights, Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003.
Nonetheless, NASA puts the existing failure rate for the shuttles at 1-in-220. The failure rate for the crew exploration vehicle is put at 1-in-2,000.
? 2005 AAP
http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Return-to-moon-will-cost-137b-NASA/2005/09/20/1126982023668.html
Good to see man getting back on the moon.
Does anyone here still believe we didn't land on the moon?
.... lol
