Return to the Moon
En Español
Huge flames erupt beneath your rocket as it blasts off. The engines roar. The spacecraft shakes. Drops of sweat line your brow. Will you make it to the moon? And will you make it back alive?
Several days later, the answer seems to be no. A red light glows on the control panel. It warns: Low on fuel. You have to land soon. Or crash.
You think fast, looking out the window at the moonscape. You need a safe place to land. But rocks the size of trucks loom ahead. At last, you see a clear area. Can you reach it in time?
Yes. You brace yourself for a rocky landing, then touch down. The landing is gentle. Even so, your heart starts to pound. You're on the moon!
A Bold Plan
If this sounds like a video game, guess again. It really happened. Between 1969 and 1972, NASA successfully sent 12 people to the surface of the moon. Now, it hopes to go back—and beyond. NASA is making plans for this great adventure. The plan has three phases. They add up to NASA's biggest, boldest mission ever. It is called the Constellation Program.
Phase one of the plan is to get astronauts to the moon and back safely. NASA wants to send a manned mission to the moon by 2020. The goal is to learn more about our nearest neighbor in space.
That's not all. The moon may have formed from material that was once part of Earth. So learning about it could help us understand our own planet better. Astronauts may also find valuable minerals or gases. Moon gases could possibly fuel rockets to other points in space.
Phase two of NASA's plan is to build a space base on the moon. So far, people have only visited for a few days at a time. With a base, astronauts could stay for months. That would give them time to study the moon in depth.
Phase three is the boldest of all. It is to use the moon as a launch pad for sending rockets to Mars. After Mars, who knows? Space is the vast final frontier.
Phase 1 - Blastoff Times Two
NASA has already started working on the first phase of its great mission—getting people to the moon and back safely. At the heart of the plan are two spacecraft, Altair and Orion.
The moon mission starts when a huge rocket blasts Altair into space. At this point, Altair only has equipment on board—no people. Altair then orbits Earth until it can meet up with Orion.
Next, four astronauts strap themselves into Orion. A second, smaller rocket carries Orion and its brave passengers into space. If the timing is just right, Orion links with Altair. They orbit Earth together. Then both spacecraft blast out of Earth's orbit toward the moon.
Once Altair and Orion are near the moon, they begin to orbit it. Then the astronauts crawl from Orion into Altair. They prepare to journey to their next stop. It is the stark, airless surface of the moon.
Altair takes the astronauts and all their equipment down to the surface. Orion keeps circling the moon. The astronauts spend a week probing unexplored places. Then they climb into the top part of Altair. It blasts them off the moon and back up to Orion. Orion then carries the crew back toward Earth.
Altair remains in space.
Next comes one of the most heart-pounding parts of the journey. That's when Orion reenters Earth's atmosphere. The friction between the spacecraft and the air produces
life-threatening heat. The temperature may soar to 2,6000° Celsius (4,8000° Fahrenheit). To protect the astronauts during this bumpy ride, NASA is developing special shields for Orion.
Orion descends toward Earth. Parachutes billow open. They slow the craft down, so it doesn't smash into the ground. Huge air bags inflate. They help Orion touch down gently.
Phase 2 - Life on the Moon
On the moon, astronauts begin the next phase. It's a huge challenge. Piece by piece, they build a space base. Future astronauts will be able to live and work there for months. Imagine building a town from scratch. Only this town is in a place 385,000 kilometers (239,000 miles) away!
NASA is still figuring out how to get this jumbo job done. But engineers have some ideas. One idea is to use unmanned rockets to carry modules to the moon's surface. Modules are large pieces of the space base. Think of each module as a high-tech RV camper. The space base is something like a town of campers.
Another idea is for the space base to use solar panels for power. The moon has no clouds and gets plenty of sunshine. That means lots of free energy for the space base.
Astronauts need more than a base, though. To explore, they need a way to get around. NASA is already working on a new design for a lunar rover. The new rovers allow astronauts to venture much farther than they could by just bouncing around on foot.
NASA is trying out ideas for airtight cabins. Astronauts wouldn't have to wear their bulky space suits inside. If they did wear their spacesuits, the cabin would protect the suits from damaging moon dust.
Phase 3 - From the Moon to Mars
The third phase is the most challenging part of the mission. NASA wants to use the moon as a launch pad for Mars. The red planet has attracted a lot of interest lately. Scientists found it belches methane gas. This could be a sign that tiny organisms live beneath the surface. There may be alien life on Mars!
It makes sense to use the moon as a launch pad. There, gravity is much weaker than on Earth. So rockets can blast off moon's surface more easily than they can take off from Earth.
Someday, changing rockets on the moon may seem as ordinary as switching planes in an airport. But that someday is far in the future. From Earth to Mars is a long journey. Getting there won't be easy. NASA faces great hurdles. But NASA has one key thing on its side. It's the human drive to solve problems and explore.
Article by Dottie Raymer. Top-of-page photograph from NASA. "Return to the Moon" appears on page 2 of the May 2009 issue.
|
