All your moon base may no longer belong to NASA.
Bases on the moon aren't something new for NASA to think about, let alone start to plan - they've been seen in movies, crazy schemes and artistic imaginings for quite some time.
Unfortunately while a moon base would certainly be an attractive installation in terms of research and study, it doesn't seem to be the most practical of things either.
New Scientist had a few questions to pose to NASA about their plans to get a moon base by 2010 and even by 2020, but the answers given were as vague as something not incredibly specific (like that, for example).
This doesn't mean that it's not going to eventuate at all, but rather the moon base isn't very likely to come around for quite some time thanks to the budgetary constraints as well as building a sturdy and airtight facility on the hunk of rock orbiting the planet.
In NS' interview, this was one of the responses about NASA's plan for the future:
"So what I would like to see from NASA over time is an architecture that...will give us flexibility for taking humans beyond low-Earth orbit and allowing us to have options for what we can do at the moon as well as other destinations...[like] Mars or an asteroid...so that there are options on what we do in 2020,"
While we may not get a moon base in the near future, nor any giant frikin' lasers to accompany it, the future of space travel is definitely a bright one - head to New Scientist to read the rest of their interview, and set your mind to daydream...
Issue: 133 | February, 2012