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NASA unveils plans for moon base

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Tuesday, December 5, 2006

NASA has unveiled plans to set up a self-sustaining settlement at the South Pole of the Moon by 2020.

The plan calls for four-person crews to begin the construction on a rotating basis with week-long stays, advancing toward a permanent presence by 2024. Initial infrastructure would be brought to the Moon from Earth; as work progressed, the settlement would provide hydrogen and oxygen mined from the lunar surface to make water and rocket fuel.

While NASA plans to use American astronauts in the construction and maintenance of the base, plans are underway for a multinational effort. Canada has been asked to provide astronauts for assistance, and NASA has since entered talks with the European Space Agency, Australia, China, France, Germany, England, India, Italy, Russia, South Korea, and Ukraine to see how those nations and space agencies may be able to contribute to costs, logistics and other efforts. NASA did not release figures on how much the settlement will cost to build and maintain, but have been searching for both public and private funding from around the globe.

NASA says that the base will serve as part of a mission to learn about the Moon and places beyond. It is also seen as part of a long-range plan to send astronauts to Mars.

This will be the first manned mission to the moon since 1972.

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This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.
Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.

The text of this article is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License
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