NASA has unveiled its plans for a permanent moon base

NASA has unveiled plans to build and operate a base on the moon.

The base is expected to serve as a home for astronauts involved in NASA’s future space exploration missions.

Construction of the base will happen across the next six years, with the goal of establishing a “sustained human presence” on the moon by 2032.

The space agency is currently partway through its staged plan to return humans to the moon in 2028.

Moon Base

NASA intends to build the base near the moon’s south pole across three phases.

Phase 1 (Now – 2029): Initiate a “major increase in lunar activity,” with 21 planned landings across 25 missions. Test new technologies and prepare for future long-term operations.

Phase 2 (2029 – 2032): Begin building semi-permanent infrastructure and start establishing solar and nuclear power capabilities.

Phase 3 (2032 and Beyond): Scale up operations to sustain “a true enduring presence,” with humans permanently “living and working on the moon”.

Rovers

NASA also announced two contracts worth a combined $US439 million ($AU611 million) with manufacturers Astrolab and Lunar Outpost, which will build the rovers required for the project’s first phase.

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Blue Origin (owned by Jeff Bezos) will deliver the rovers to the moon.

Next steps

Rover designs will be finalised over the next 18 months. More than a dozen future missions are expected to be announced later this year.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said: “Every mission, crewed and uncrewed, will be a learning opportunity”.

China

NASA’s announcement comes amid what’s been described as the second space race.

The first space race was between the U.S. and the Soviet Union in the 1960s.

This time, it is between the U.S. and China, which has also revealed plans to send humans to the Moon by 2030.

This week, China took another step toward that goal by sending three astronauts to its space station. One of them is set to remain there for a year – the country’s longest-ever space mission.