NASA's Moon Base Takes Shape

NASA wants to do more than visit the Moon again. It wants to stay. The agency is building what it calls humanity's first lunar outpost, a Moon Base near the Moon's South Pole. Why there? Scientists think some craters there hold ice that has stayed frozen in shadow for a very long time, and ice could someday mean water, air and even rocket fuel. The plan goes step by step. Phase One runs from now through 2029, and robots go first: more than twenty robotic landings from companies like Blue Origin, Firefly, Intuitive Machines and Voyager. The very first lander, called Endurance, will aim for a ridge near Shackleton Crater. Its NASA cameras will record how rocket exhaust blasts the moon dust, because future landers will need to set down next to real buildings without sandblasting them. Robots scout and build first. Astronauts move in later.