NASA Unveils Plans for Extensive Lunar Base Covering Hundreds of Square Kilometers

NASA has unveiled an ambitious plan to establish a permanent base on the moon. The initiative kicks off with autonomous rovers and drones surveying the lunar landscape. Future astronauts will work on constructing a lunar habitat covering hundreds of square kilometers.

This lunar base project is integral to NASA’s Artemis program, which focuses on long-term human presence on the moon, following its last astronaut landing in the 1970s. The Artemis II mission successfully returned four astronauts from lunar orbit in April this year, yet specific timelines for the lunar base have remained sparse until now.

On May 26, NASA announced its first three lunar base missions slated for this year, with nine additional missions expected by 2027. The entire program will unfold in three phases, beginning with the first phase aimed at ensuring “reliable access” to the lunar surface through 2029. The second phase will include initial lunar base operations until 2032, while the final phase involves constructing the base near the moon’s south pole, projected to conclude by 2036.

The missions this year will be unmanned, focusing on detailed studies of the lunar surface to mitigate risks for future missions. Lunar Base I will launch this year using a lander developed by Blue Origin, owned by Jeff Bezos, which has yet to perform a lunar landing.

Also scheduled for launch this year are Moonbase II and III, though their exact launch windows are still to be confirmed. Each will involve landers from different companies; Astrobotic’s Griffin lander and autonomous rover, along with Intuitive Machines, which has previously attempted moon landings with limited success.

In addition to the aforementioned missions, NASA has awarded over $200 million each to two firms, Astrolab and Lunar Outpost, for the development of lunar probes under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services Program. Astrolab will create a larger human-operated rover with a 1000-kilogram capacity capable of traveling at approximately 10 km/h. Conversely, Lunar Outpost’s agile design can autonomously navigate at over 14 km/h.

NASA is also preparing for its 2028 Moonfall mission, which will employ four unmanned vehicles for close-range lunar surveying, producing high-resolution imagery to identify potential landing zones for subsequent Artemis missions. These drones are set to be built at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, while Firefly Aerospace will construct the transport vehicle to ferry them to the moon.

However, key aspects of the future moon base, including its power sources, construction methods, and protection from space radiation, remain largely undisclosed. Former NASA administrator Sean Duffy mentioned plans for a nuclear fission reactor on the moon by 2030, but the latest updates from NASA, under Jared Isaacman’s leadership, have not clarified this point.