Resource map of the north pole of the Moon (from Spudis and Lavoie, in press) We are almost at the end of a year that has seen major changes in our space program. We have in hand a report from a “blue ribbon” Presidential committee that concluded that Project Constellation, the architecture NASA had chosen to implement the Vision for Space Exploration, was not affordable at current funding levels but might be accomplished with an increase in the agency’s budget, on the order of an additional $3 billion per year. The committee presented architectural alternatives to Project Constellation, one [...]
