WHY GO TO THE MOON?

摘要

The American vision for space exploration is currently moving forward, with contracts underway for the Ares I launch vehicle and the Orion manned spacecraft, but there has been little specific reasoning from the government to explain why.rnFor the past four years, a team at Boeing Phantom Works: Analysis, Modeling, Simulation, and Experimentation has been conducting mission analysis to assess the mission needs, critical trade studies, and technical and cost feasibility of human space exploration and colonization of the Moon. The team aspired to answer some of the most challenging questions about the possibility of a successful lunar mission in the next era of U.S. space exploration: the Constellation spacecraft.