NASA reveals plans for a permanent base on the Moon
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What are NASA's plans for a permanent base on the Moon?
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This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK.
This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Charlotte Gallagher, and in the early hours of the 27th of May, these are our main stories. The U.S. starts ordering hardware to build a long-term base for humans on the moon. As fighting between Hezbollah and Israel continues, we hear why the so-called ceasefire isn't working. Also in this podcast…
We're producers. We have everything here. We have all manner of natural resources. We have clean water. We have agriculture. We could put a fence around Alberta. We don't need anybody else for anything.
Could a breakaway province in Canada help Donald Trump's 51st state ambitions? It's been less than two months since the world watched as NASA's Artemis II mission marked a return to the Moon with a flyby.
We just realised that we have Earth out window four and Moon out window three. The Moon is about three to four times the size of the Earth.
And now the U.S. Space Agency says it's ordering parts for a sprawling base on the lunar surface, with plans for a long-term site for humans by 2032. Dr. Laurie Glaze is from NASA.
We are building humanity's first outpost beyond Earth. Through Artemis we are going and with Moonbase we're going to stay. And together, NASA, industry and international partners, we are creating a future where exploration is not just an incredible moment in history, but the first foothold beyond Earth for all of humanity.
Our North America correspondent David Willis has been following developments. President Trump wants to land Americans back on the moon before he leaves office in 2028. So NASA is under pressure to at least look like it's winning the new space race. But China is breathing down its neck, of course, and it's forging ahead with plans to land human beings on the moon by the year 2030. And Despite the U.S. 's success in sending four astronauts around the moon in the Artemis II mission last month, there are many experts who believe that NASA's timetable is ambitious to say the very least and that China will be the next country to actually land humans on the moon's surface. Well, today NASA announced further details.
Details of a $20 billion plan to establish a permanent base at the south pole of the moon by 2032. The initial phase being the development of robotic landers and hopping drones by a company such as Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin Space Company. thereby to explore and map the terrain of the moon before human beings actually travel there. And that discovery phase of the programme is expected to last, we're told, until 2029 and will pave the way for the creation of nuclear and solar-powered facilities on the moon so that by 2032 everything will be in place to allow human beings to live there in sort of semi-permanent housing. As you said there, this is Donald Trump's pet project. He wants this. But I guess once he's gone from office, the next administration might say it's a waste of money.
We shouldn't be prioritising this. Well, you're right. This is very much Donald Trump's baby. He's been driving NASA's pivot towards an accelerated lunar program, largely in an effort to beat China to the pole position, to showcase US technological superiority, if you like. Artemis program has taken years of work.
How is the U.S. responding to the current situation in Lebanon?
It's estimated to have cost close to $100 billion so far. But aside from Donald Trump's political investment in all this, it could yield considerable economic benefit for the United States should this. the US be the first nation to plant a permanent flag there. The moon, we know, contains rare earth elements which are scarce on earth. There are metals such as iron and titanium as well as helium, not to mention water, which of course is vital if you're going to set up a permanent base there. But gaining access... to the areas with the most abundant resources means securing the best lunar real estate and that means establishing an early bridgehead and there's a general feeling here that any future US administration would be unlikely to turn its back on a potential return on the billions of dollars that have already been spent, especially in the light of the potential scientific benefits that all this could yield for the world in general.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What are NASA's plans for a permanent base on the Moon?
0:00–4:48
2
How is the U.S. responding to the current situation in Lebanon?
4:48–10:27
3
What impact does the independence debate in Alberta have on Canada?
10:27–14:32
4
How is NASA's Artemis program evolving in the space race?
14:32–18:49
5
What are the potential resources available on the Moon?
18:49–26:42
6
How will the arrest of El Chapo's nephew affect drug trafficking in Mexico?
26:42–29:10
7
What role do therapy dogs play in mental health support in Uganda?
29:10–30:11
Speakers
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