To da’ moon!!

This week NASA unveiled its grand plan for the future of space exploration, and it’s nothing if not ambitious.

The plan, tentatively scheduled for completion by 2018, centers on a new spacecraft that should be able to make the trip to the moon more frequently and reliably than the current shuttle.

With a minimum of two lunar missions per year, momentum will build quickly toward a permanent outpost. Crews will stay longer and learn to exploit the moon’s resources, while landers make one way trips to deliver cargo. Eventually, the new system could rotate crews to and from a lunar outpost every six months.

Planners are already looking at the lunar south pole as a candidate for an outpost because of concentrations of hydrogen thought to be in the form of water ice, and an abundance of sunlight to provide power.

There’s a hefty $104 billion dollar price tag attached, which administrators say can be covered without increasing NASA’s existing budget. Unfortunately for NASA, this country isn’t exactly fiscally flush at the moment, and I wonder if the agency will get the dough to make this happen.

You can find more mission details on NASA’s website.