NASA accelerates moon flights.

The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has just selected three more companies to launch robotic lunar landers, in an effort to establish a base on the planet before the end of the decade.

Give it your all.

Plans to build a base on the Moon are being seriously pursued as NASA outlines a strategy to send landers, rovers, all-terrain vehicles, and other equipment to the planet nearly 390,000 km from Earth.

Astrobotic plans to launch its Griffin-1 lunar lander to the moon later this year. Photo: Astrobotic

On June 30, NASA announced it would award contracts worth approximately $590 million to private space companies Astrobotic, Firefly, and Intuitive Machines to carry out four missions to deliver scientific equipment and other supplies to the Moon. The overall goal of this series of missions is to test technology and survey sites, thereby providing a basis for NASA's plan to build a lunar base.

On the same day, NASA also considered the possibility of repurposing the Promise rover on Mars for use on the Moon. NASA wants Promise to survey areas at the Moon's South Pole and search for resources there.

Astrobotic has partnered with NASA to develop a lunar lander capable of carrying 454 kg of cargo and a rover to the lunar surface. Firefly is currently the only company to have successfully landed the Blue Ghost lander near the lunar equator last year.

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Meanwhile, Intuitive Machines has twice sent landers close to the Moon's South Pole, an area of ​​particular interest due to the suspected presence of hundreds of millions of tons of water ice, which could be converted into rocket fuel or drinking water.

These contracts are part of what is called “Phase 1” of the plan to build a permanent settlement on the Moon, where astronauts will live and work. This phase is expected to last until 2028 and cost approximately $10 billion.

In June, NASA also announced other contracts in the early stages of the program and plans to rename three previously signed missions to lunar base-focused missions. Prior to that, the agency had awarded contracts totaling over $1 billion to build lunar rovers and deploy drones to Earth's natural satellite to assist in mapping potential base locations, possibly as early as 2028.

Phases 2 and 3, which include plans to build the first pressurized habitation areas on the Moon and install power generation systems, outline NASA's vision for continued expansion of the lunar base into the 2030s. In the long term, the agency hopes astronauts will be able to live and work in "semi-permanent" settlements.

Establishing American dominance

NASA estimates that building a base on the Moon will cost a total of $30 billion.

A lunar base is an integral part of NASA's Artemis program, a project that has so far cost approximately $100 billion and includes an unmanned test mission and the historic crewed orbit around the Moon in April. Now, NASA is preparing to return humans to the surface of this celestial body for the first time in 50 years and gradually build a settlement there.

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All of these efforts are part of NASA's plan to compete with China, whose space program has made tremendous strides over the past decade. U.S. lawmakers have repeatedly warned that Beijing's efforts threaten Washington's leading position in space technology.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the agency aims to provide monthly updates on the progress of lunar base construction missions. NASA will also invite proposals for science and technology that could be deployed to the Moon as part of planned missions in the coming years, potentially involving experiments related to energy infrastructure or communication systems.

HANH NGUYEN (According to CNN, NBC News)

Source: https://baocantho.com.vn/nasa-tang-toc-cac-chuyen-bay-len-mat-trang-a208598.html