Nasa reveals what holidays on the moon could look like by 2032

Nasa has unveiled your next holiday destination – the moon.

The US space agency yesterday released new details of its lunar outpost in the South Pole, set to be built by 2032.

In concept photos, astronauts can be seen hopping around the moon’s lumpy surface, driving sleek buggies towards Tic Tac-shaped buildings.

Plans to build the base, which would be powered by nuclear and solar energy, were first announced in March.

Nasa administrator Jared Isaacman said at a press conference ‘America is returning to the moon.

‘For all we hope to accomplish in this endeavour, what we are embarking upon is extremely challenging and we know so little from what is a combined 80 hours of lunar astronaut EVA [extravehicular activity] time across the Apollo missions and that was more than a half century ago.’

The $20 billion (£15 billion) facility would be the first step in Nasa’s dreams to establish civilisation’s first foothold on another world – but not just the moon.

Rather, Isaacman, a billionaire entrepreneur who twice travelled to low-Earth orbit on space missions he financed, has his eyes set on Mars.

‘Really, it is to have an environment where we can work with the water, ice and master the skills for where we go next, which is Mars,’ Isaacman said. 

‘And it would be nice to do that when you’re four days away from home… than many months away from home.’

The Nasa chief added that the outpost on the lonely grey orb would be one of ‘several’.

‘I think, cave exploration has been part of, at various times, our own astronaut programme training as well,’ Isaacman added.

‘So we certainly see value in that environment.’

He even wants to build a ‘lunar economy’.

‘I don’t believe that we are going to have the true kind of space-faring world we may have imagined as children reading science fiction books, if it’s perpetually funded by taxpayers,’ Issacman added.

When could the moon base happen?

Building the moon base is a three-phase operation. ‘We are not jumping right into the glass dome moon base as a service,’ Isaacman said.

‘Because the moon base is as beautiful as it is hostile,’ he added, stressing that the moon reaches 250°C in the sun and -250°C at night, as the natural satellite has no atmosphere to protect it.

Phase one, which has already begun with missions like Artemis II, will see Nasa send humans to the lunar surface for the first time since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.

Scientists will conduct research and lay the groundwork for the base across 25 launches and 21 landings.

During phase two, currently planned for between 2029 and 2032, Nasa will build the infrastructure needed to sustain months-long missions.

Phase three, from 2032, would increase the number of launches so there are always people on the moon, a bit like the International Space Station.

To achieve their plan, Nasa is relying heavily on private space contractors.

The agency awarded two companies contracts to develop new versions of the buggies astronauts drove in the Apollo missions of the early 1970s.

Lunar Outpost and Venturi Astrolab will be awarded $220 million to build the vehicles, which NASA calls lunar terrain vehicles, or LTVs

Two astronauts can squeeze into one of these 1,000kg vehicles and, if no one is around, drive themselves. Or an Earthling can control them remotely.

Carlos García-Galán, who heads Nasa’s lunar settlement programme, said he wants the astronauts going to the moon in 2028 for Artemis IV to have some kit waiting for them.

‘It’s absolutely an objective,’ García-Galán said.

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