Lunar Base Targeted for 2032: NASA Made a Bunch of Moon Base Announcements Here, CNET

A plan for a lunar base

NASA held its first aerospace technology expo, Max Power, from Wednesday through Sunday at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The event included panels, demonstrations and announcements, with a major focus on the Ignition initiative and its goal of establishing a moon base by 2032.

NASA administrator Jared Isaacman said the agency is advancing the effort through successive missions. He said astronauts returning to the moon would find initial base components already on the surface.

NASA expects commercial aerospace companies to supply many of the needed systems. The companies named include Blue Origin, Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, SpaceX, Voyager Technologies and ispace-US.

Contracts to move lunar cargo

NASA announced the CLPS 2 contract as part of its Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, which is intended to send equipment and materials ahead of crews. The plan builds on CLPS 1.0, which covers infrastructure and vehicles for transporting cargo and crew between Earth and the moon.

Those vehicles are intended to carry cargo landers toward the moon and release them for delivery to the surface. NASA also outlined three planned missions: research to reduce risks to people and improve lander deployment, MoonFall drone surveys to identify a base site, and tests of the infrastructure.

Promise rover and surface work

NASA awarded Blue Origin a $94 million development contract for Promise, or Polar Rover for Observation, Mapping and In-Situ Exploration. The deal also includes up to $140 million tied to performance for delivery to the moon.

The nuclear-powered rover is designed to operate during two-week lunar nights and in permanently shadowed areas. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Caltech will manage it; its planned work includes analyzing regolith, searching for ice and exploring the surface.

NASA’s final event segment addressed infrastructure for long-term astronaut stays. The article begins describing energy storage and transmission contracts, naming Honeybee Robotics, a Blue Origin company, but cuts off before giving further details.