How We'll Return to the Moon

Some time in the year 2018, if all plans come to fruition,an event will happen for the first time in forty six years. A space craft will land on the Moon and astronauts will walk on the lunar surface. The space craft will look, superficially, like the one take took astronauts to the Moon over four and a half decades before. But in many ways it will be as different as its long ago ancestor as a model 1972 four door sedan has to the 2018 model.

Crewed Exploration Vehicle

The first component of the lunar space craft will be a vehicle called the Crewed Exploration Vehicle (CEV), consisting of a service module and a command module. It will be shaped like an Apollo capsule, but will be about three times larger. When it first flies in the early part of the next decade, the CEV will be used to transport astronauts and/or cargo to the International Space Station. It will be able to carry a crew of six to ISS or, in an unmanned version, about seven thousand pounds of pressurized cargo. The version that will go to the Moon will carry four astronauts.

Unlike the Apollo capsule, the CEV will carry a pair of solar arrays that will deploy once in space. Also the CEV will have the advantage of modern electronics, avionics, and software. It will be propelled by a rocket which uses liquid oxygen and liquid methane.

Crewed Launch System

The Crewed Exploration Vehicle will be launched into low Earth orbit by a new rocket called the Crewed Launch Vehicle (CLV). The first stage of the CLV is a four segment large solid rocket booster, similar to the ones that are used to boost the space shuttle into orbit. The second stage consists of a liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen tank feeding a single space shuttle main engine. This launch vehicle can boost twenty five metric tons to low Earth orbit. Adding a fifth segment to the solid rocket stage will increase that to thirty two metric tons.