2026-03-24T14:14:00-0400 / CBS新闻
NASA周二宣布了一项雄心勃勃的长期计划，计划在未来7年内投入200亿美元，在月球南极附近建造一个包含栖息地、加压月球车和核动力系统的月球基地。这一宣布距离NASA计划发射的”阿尔忒弥斯二号”绕月任务仅一周多一点时间。
NASA局长贾里德·艾萨克曼在华盛顿NASA总部启动了一系列与承包商的会议，他设想每年发射两次登月任务，在月球表面建立半永久性的宇航员驻留，以探索、开展研究并开发最终飞往火星所需的技术。
NASA局长贾里德·艾萨克曼概述了一项大胆的新计划，计划在未来7年内投入200亿美元，在月球南极附近建造一个月球基地。NASA电视台
“这种经过修订的、逐步推进的方法——学习、建立肌肉记忆、降低风险并获得信心——正是NASA在20世纪60年代实现看似不可能的目标的方式，”他在提到该机构的阿波罗计划时说，”但这一次，目标不是插旗和留下足迹。这一次，目标是留下来。
“今天，我们正在提供频繁载人任务的需求，”艾萨克曼表示，这远远超出了之前宣布的2028年登月计划。”我们打算与至少两家发射服务提供商合作，目标是每六个月进行一次载人着陆，并在未来几年为新进入者提供更多机会。美国将不再放弃月球。
经过修订的阿尔忒弥斯计划在艾萨克曼下令对近期任务进行重大调整几周后公布，他增加了明年在近地轨道进行的一次飞行，以测试猎户座载人飞船和SpaceX与蓝色起源正在建造的月球着陆器的会合和对接程序。
根据阿尔忒弥斯二号和三号任务的结果，NASA现在计划在2028年发射至少一次、可能两次登月任务——阿尔忒弥斯四号和五号——使用一个或两个私人开发的月球着陆器，然后继续推进一系列稳定的飞行，以在月球上建立基地。
在此过程中，NASA将放弃在月球轨道上建造一个名为”门户”的计划空间站，并将已经在开发中的舱段和系统重新用于计划中的月球基地。
在旧架构中，”门户”将在一个高度椭圆轨道上运行，来自地球的猎户座载人飞船将与已经停靠的月球着陆器会合，然后下降到月球表面。目前的情况是，猎户座宇航员将直接转移到他们的着陆器，而不会在轨道前哨站停留。
“门户”旨在适应猎户座载人飞船的推进能力及其服务舱发动机，该发动机没有足够的动力进入和离开像阿波罗宇航员使用的那种低月球轨道。
在没有”门户”的情况下可能实现的轨道类型尚未确定，但NASA正在要求其承包商帮助提出可行的替代方案。
“我们暂停目前形式的’门户’并专注于支持月球表面持续运营的基础设施，这应该不会让任何人感到惊讶，”艾萨克曼说。”尽管存在一些非常实际的硬件和进度挑战，但我们可以重新利用设备和国际合作伙伴的承诺，以支持地面和其他项目目标。”
他补充说，将NASA劳动力的优先级”转移到月球表面”将使该机构能够将月球用作”未来火星计划的试验场”，并且这一政策变化”并不排除未来重新审视轨道前哨站的可能性”。
NASA计划分三个阶段建造一个月球基地，首先是更频繁地将宇航员和货物运送到月球，以开发支持长期驻留人员所需的基础设施。NASA电视台
由已故天文学家卡尔·萨根共同创立的太空倡导组织行星协会估计，到2026年，NASA在重返月球计划上的支出将达到约1070亿美元（按通货膨胀调整后）。这在很大程度上要归功于过去20年中各届总统政府反复进行的计划调整。
太空计划的重点转移
在2003年哥伦比亚号航天飞机灾难之后，乔治·W·布什总统命令NASA退役航天飞机，建造新火箭并在2020年前将宇航员送回月球，这就是后来的星座计划。奥巴马政府认为该计划不可持续，并命令NASA转而专注于飞往附近小行星的任务。
在他的第一任期内，特朗普总统命令NASA将重点重新转移到月球，以实现2024年登月的目标，这就是后来的阿尔忒弥斯计划。拜登政府总体上没有干预阿尔忒弥斯计划，但该计划因新冠疫情、预算短缺和各种其他因素而放缓。
艾萨克曼多次谈到特朗普先生对阿尔忒弥斯计划的持续支持，而局长周二概述的修订架构显然得到了白宫的批准。
谈到过去的延误和预算超支，艾萨克曼说”我们在这一努力中遗留下来的项目都不是成功的案例。NASA对自身的不足负责，但投入更多的数十亿美元和我们没有的时间不是成功的途径。”
月球基地将分三个阶段建造。第一阶段将从不频繁的、每年一次的月球任务过渡到”一种模板化方法，通过实验产生大量学习成果”，他说。
“我们将大幅增加月球着陆次数…运送月球车、仪器和技术有效载荷，测试机动性、电力系统…通信、导航、地面操作以及所有可以纳入的科学有效载荷。”
第二阶段将开发栖息地和基础设施”支持地面上的定期宇航员操作”。第三阶段将实现”维持人类存在所需的永久基础设施”，艾萨克曼说。
这包括核和太阳能系统、载人及无人月球车，包括用于准备建筑工地的机器、类似手机的通信网络、月球GPS系统以及月球观测和通信中继卫星群。
“月球基地不会一夜之间出现，”艾萨克曼说。”我们将在未来7年内投资约200亿美元，通过数十次任务来建造它，与商业和国际合作伙伴合作，制定一个深思熟虑且可实现的计划。”
他还表示，在国际空间站退役后，NASA将加速在近地轨道上建立商业空间站的工作，同时保持稳定的行星和其他科学任务流，比如飞行任务向火星运送多架小型直升机。
但周二月球是该机构的核心焦点，艾萨克曼明确表示，在击败中国重返月球表面方面，失败不是一个选项。
“如果我们失败，并且我们眼睁睁看着竞争对手先于我们实现月球目标，我们不会庆祝我们对过度要求、政策或官僚程序的坚持，”他说，随后补充道”当进度落后或预算超支时，我们不会袖手旁观。”
“如果需要，期待采取一些不受欢迎的行动，因为公众已经投入了超过1000亿美元，并且对美国重返月球非常有耐心。期望是非常高的。”
NASA unveils ambitious $20 billion plan to build moon base near lunar south pole
2026-03-24T14:14:00-0400 / CBS News
NASA announced ambitious long-range plans Tuesday to spend $20 billion over the next seven years to build a moon base near the lunar south pole featuring habitats, pressurized rovers and nuclear power systems. The announcement came just over a week before the planned launch of NASA’s Artemis II around-the-moon mission.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman kicked off a series of meetings with contractors at NASA Headquarters in Washington saying he envisioned launching two moon landing missions per year to establish semi-permanent astronaut occupation on the lunar surface to explore, conduct research and develop the technology needed for eventual flights to Mars.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman outlined a bold new plan to build a moon base near the lunar south pole at a cost of $20 billion over the next seven years. NASA TV
“This revised, step-by-step approach to learn, to build muscle memory, to bring down risk and gain confidence is exactly how NASA achieved the near impossible in the 1960s,” he said, referring to the agency’s Apollo program. “But this time, the goal is not flags and footprints. This time, the goal is to stay.
“Today, we are providing a demand for frequent crewed missions,” well beyond the previously announced moon landings in 2028, Isaacman said. “We intend to work with no fewer than two launch providers with the aim of crewed landings every six months, with additional opportunities for new entrants in the years ahead. America will never again give up the moon.”
The revised Artemis program was unveiled just a few weeks after Isaacman ordered major changes to near-term missions, adding a flight in low-Earth orbit next year to test rendezvous and docking procedures using Orion crew ships and moon landers being built by SpaceX and Blue Origin.
Based on the results of the Artemis II and III missions, NASA now plans to launch at least one and possibly two moon landing missions in 2028 — Artemis IV and V — using one or both privately developed moon landers before pressing ahead with a steady stream of flights to develop a base on the moon.
In the process, NASA will forego development of a planned space station in lunar orbit, known as the Gateway, and repurpose modules and systems already under development to serve as components of the planned moon base.
Under the old architecture, Gateway would have operated in a highly elliptical orbit where Orion crew ships from Earth would meet up with already docked lunar landers for descents to the surface. As it now stands, Orion astronauts will transfer directly to their landers without stopping at an orbital way station.
Gateway was intended to accommodate the propulsion capabilities of the Orion crew ship and its service module engine, which does not have the power to get into and out of a low-lunar orbit like the one used by Apollo crews.
What sort of orbits might be possible in the absence of Gateway was not addressed, but NASA is asking its contractors to help come up with workable alternatives.
“It should not really surprise anyone that we are pausing Gateway in its current form and focusing on infrastructure that supports sustained operations on the lunar surface,” Isaacman said. “Despite some of the very real hardware and schedule challenges, we can repurpose equipment and international partner commitments to support surface and other program objectives.”
He added that “shifting NASA workforce priority” to the lunar surface will enable the agency to use the moon as a “proving ground for future Mars initiatives” and that the policy change “does not preclude revisiting the orbital outpost in the future.”
NASA plans to build a planned moon base in three stages, starting with more frequent astronaut and cargo flights to the moon the develop the infrastructure needed to support long-duration crews. NASA TV
The Planetary Society, a space advocacy organization co-founded by the late astronomer Carl Sagan, estimates NASA will have spent about $107 billion on return-to-the-moon plans through 2026 in inflation-adjusted dollars. That’s thanks in large part to repeated program changes over the past 20 years by successive presidential administrations.
Shifting priorities for the space program
In the wake of the shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003, President George W. Bush ordered NASA to retire the shuttle, build new rockets and return astronauts to the moon by 2020 in what became known as the Constellation program. The Obama administration concluded that program was not sustainable and ordered NASA to focus instead on a flight to a nearby asteroid.
In his first term, President Trump ordered NASA to shift its focus back to the moon for a proposed 2024 landing in what became known as the Artemis program. The Biden administration generally left Artemis alone, but the program had been slowed by the COVID pandemic, budget shortfalls and a variety of other factors.
Isaacman has repeatedly talked of Mr. Trump’s continued support of the Artemis program, and the revised architecture the administrator outlined Tuesday clearly has the approval of the White House.
Speaking of past delays and budget overruns, Isaacman said “the programs we left behind in this effort were not success stories. NASA takes ownership for the shortcomings, but contributing billions more and time that we do not have was not a pathway to success.”
The moon base will be built in three phases. Phase 1 will transition from infrequent, once-a-year moon missions to “a templated approach that will generate significant learning through experimentation,” he said.
“We will dramatically expand lunar landings … delivering rovers, instruments and technology payloads that test mobility, power systems … communications, navigation, surface operations and all the science payload that can be incorporated.”
Phase 2 will see development of habitats and infrastructure “supporting regular astronaut operations on the surface.” Phase 3 will enable “the permanent infrastructure necessary to sustain a human presence,” Isaacman said.
That includes nuclear and solar power systems, crewed and uncrewed rovers, including machines to prepare sites for construction, a cellphone-like communications network, a lunar GPS system and constellations of lunar observation and communications relay satellites.
“The moon base will not appear overnight,” Isaacman said. “We will invest approximately $20 billion over the next seven years and build it through dozens of missions, working together with commercial and international partners towards a deliberate and achievable plan.”
He also said NASA will accelerate work to enable commercial space stations in low-Earth orbit after the International Space Station is retired while maintaining a steady stream of planetary and other science missions like a flight to deliver multiple small helicopters to Mars.
But the moon was the agency’s central focus Tuesday, and Isaacman made it clear that failure is not an option when it comes to beating China back to the lunar surface.
“Should we fail, and should we look on as our rivals achieve their lunar goals ahead of our own, we are not going to celebrate our adherence to excess requirements, policy or bureaucratic process,” he said, adding later that “we are not going to sit idly by when schedules slip or budgets are exceeded.”
“Expect uncomfortable action if that is what it takes, because the public has invested over $100 billion and has been very patient with respect to America’s return to the moon. Expectations are rightfully very high.”
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