US
plans permanent base on Moon
US
space agency Nasa has said it plans to start work on a permanently-occupied base
on the Moon after astronauts begin flying back there in 2020.
The
base is likely to be built on one of the Moon's poles and will serve as a science
centre and possible stepping stone for manned missions to Mars.
The
US has already said it plans to build a new lunar spacecraft to succeed the last
Apollo mission in 1972.
Funds
will be moved from space shuttle flights, due to be scrapped in 2010.
The
structure of the base and the exact duties of the astronauts stationed there have
not been decided.
Nor
is it clear when the base will begin functioning.
Lunar
outpost
"We're
going for a base on the moon," Scott "Doc" Horowitz, Nasa's associate
administrator for exploration, said.
The
agency's deputy head, Shana Dale, is quoted by the Associated Press news agency
as saying that the "fundamental lunar approach" will be very different
to earlier Moon missions.
Nasa
has elected to build a lunar outpost rather than operate brief trips to the satellite
as it did in the 1960s.
Nasa
is also expected to ask other countries - and businesses - to help it build the
base.
The
permanent base will be built near one of the two poles, as these are felt to have
a moderate climate and more sunlight - essential if the base is to use solar energy.
"It's
exciting," Shana Dale told the Reuters news agency. "We don't know as
much about the polar regions."
According
to Reuters, funds for building the lunar base will be diverted from the space
shuttle programme, which is to be phased out by 2010.
After
the Columbia space shuttle accident, US President George W Bush announced plans
to send astronauts back to the moon by 2020.
Nasa
announced in August that the Lockheed Martin Corporation will build the next US
spaceship to take humans to the Moon.
