Nasa boosted by Apollo on steroids

Illustrations with pointers of proposed vehicles for transporting people and cargo to the Moon. Picture / Reuters

WASHINGTON - Nasa unveiled its plan on Monday to return Americans to the moon by 2018 aboard a capsule-like vehicle.

Like the Apollo programme that carried the first humans to the moon in 1969, the new system would put crew members into a capsule sitting atop a rocket, and would have a separate heavy-lift vehicle to take only cargo into orbit.

"It is very Apollo-like ... but bigger," Nasa chief Michael Griffin said. "Think Apollo on steroids."

The capsule's base would be larger than Apollo's - 5.5m compared with 3.9m - and it would weigh about 50 per cent more, Griffin said.

It would carry six people, instead of Apollo's three, and be able to stay in lunar orbit for six months.

The first human mission to the moon since 1972 was scheduled to take place in 2018, Griffin said, carrying four people for a four- to seven-day stay.

He defended the programme's cost of US$104 billion ($150 billion), which is expected to spark criticism in light of US commitments in Iraq and areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina. He said the programme will cost 55 per cent of what Apollo cost, in constant dollars spread over 13 years.

"There will be a lot more hurricanes and a lot more other natural disasters to befall the United States and the world" before the launch in 2018, Griffin said.

"When we have a hurricane, we don't cancel the Air Force ... and we're not going to cancel Nasa."

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Texas Republican who chairs a Senate panel on science and space, quickly voiced her support: "I will do everything possible to keep the shuttle and crew exploration vehicle programmes on course."

Nasa's Johnson Space Centre in Texas controls the US manned spaceflight programme and employs thousands of staff.

Another Republican, House Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert, of New York, wondered about the plan's timing in light of the space shuttle programme's limited funding. "There is simply no credible way to accelerate the development of a crew exploration vehicle unless the Nasa budget increases more than has been anticipated," he said.

Charles Lurio, an independent space consultant who strongly favours commercial space exploration, was sharply critical.

"It's painful to watch them propose something that will give you the least human space exploration for the most dollars spent," he said. "[Griffin] shuffles around the old Nasa and old contractor establishment. What is needed is fundamental change to go to the new people on the block."

The new space system is meant to replace the ageing and now-grounded shuttle fleet, but would use some shuttle components, including its rocket boosters, main engine and massive external tank, Griffin said.

- REUTERS