An excerpt from the article:
Momentum Builds For International Moon Base
Dec 14, 2016 Frank Morring, Jr. | Aviation Week & Space Technology
Technical and political developments have given Jan Woerner’s “lunar village” a boost this year, to the point that the ambitious European Space Agency (ESA) chief sees its development already underway. The member-states’ science ministers endorsed Woerner’s “Space 4.0” concept this month to underpin the idea; three teams in the $30 million Google Lunar X-Prize competition secured launch contracts to keep the robotic space race alive, and Donald Trump’s election as the next U.S. president raises the chances that NASA will refocus its relatively deep pockets on Earth’s natural satellite.
Naval Research Lab concept for giant radio telescope on the far side of the Moon.
Naval Research Lab concept for giant radio telescope on the far side of the Moon. Credit: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
“Somebody was asking me, ‘When do you do it, and how much money do you need?’ ” Woerner told the Space Transportation Association (STA) in a Capitol Hill year-ender on Dec. 9. “I said it’s already progressing, as a village on Earth. The village starts with the first actor, and we have several actors right now, so it’s already on its way.”
Three Lunar X-Prize teams have rides to the Moon’s surface, meeting an end-of-year deadline set by Google to keep the contest going. A fourth, Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic, has signed deals with Europe’s Airbus Defense and Space to help engineer its robotic lander, and with DHL to handle logistics services for commercial customers.
Mexican space agency AEM has bought a ride from Astrobotic for a payload developed by that nation’s scientists, as a “sovereign customer” that cannot afford to build its own lander but wants to get in on the game. That is right up Woerner’s alley.
“I call it Moon village,” he says. “It is free and open access through the different players. It is not a limited plan.”
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“What we can do over there is Moon science, cosmology, especially from the far side of the Moon; fundamental research; lunar resource [exploitation]; technology development; transportation; communication and logistics; resource management and planetary defense,” Woerner says. “It’s a stepping stone to go farther in our universe, and I’m quite sure that humans will go farther.”
Woerner notes that his concept has been “well received” in the U.S. Senior NASA managers already say the agency is able to “pivot” to a lunar focus, and it certainly could make a significant contribution to planting an outpost on the Moon. It has been there six times with humans, and is building the Saturn V-class Space Launch System and Orion crew capsule—“Apollo on steroids”—as long-term human-exploration infrastructure.
NASA also is opening up the “critical path” for access to lunar orbit and other deep-space destinations by allowing ESA to develop the service module that will move Orion through space.
“It’s hard for us to put others in the critical path,” adds Associate Administrator Robert Lightfoot, who shared the STA podium with Woerner. “That is a cultural thing for us, is control. We lose control. But those guys have been a great partner, and I think we’re going to see a pretty awesome flight of [Orion].”
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