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HOUSTON - NASA announced Monday its strategy and rationale for robotic and human exploration of the moon, determining that a lunar outpost is the best approach to achieve a sustained, human presence there.

The base would be built in incremental steps, starting with four-person crews making several seven-day visits. The first mission would begin by 2020, with the base growing over time, beefed up with more power, mobility rovers and living quarters.

The moon base would eventually support 180-day lunar stays, a stretch of time seen as the best avenue to establish a permanent presence there, as well as prepare for future human exploration of Mars.

Here at the NASA Johnson Space Center, space agency planners detailed a global exploration strategy, outlining the themes and objectives of 21st century lunar exploration and the hardware needed to regain a foothold on the moon.

NASA’s lunar plan also encourages participation by other nations, as well as non-governmental organizations and commercial groups.

Location, location, location
“We’re going to go after a lunar base,” said Scott Horowitz, NASA associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate. The lunar base will be the central theme in NASA’s going back to the moon effort, he said, in preparation to go to Mars and beyond.

As to where on the moon such a post might be positioned—like real estate here on Earth—it’s location, location, location.

“What we’re looking at are polar locations…both the north pole and south pole,” said NASA Deputy Administrator Shana Dale. Picking between the two poles will be done once NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter begins surveying the moon after its launch in October 2008.

One particular area that’s already receiving high marks by NASA’s lunar architecture team is at the South Pole—a spot on the rim of Shackleton Crater that’s almost permanently sunlit.

“It’s also adjacent to a permanently dark region in which there are potentially volatiles that we can extract and use,” said NASA’s Doug Cooke, Deputy Associate Administrator of the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate.

Source: MSNBC

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