Science

Garcia-Galan explained that the lunar base would be established through three phases, using a mix of providers primarily through a scaled up Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. Each of these three phases would cost on the order of $10 billion. The first of these, running through 2028, is estimated to comprise 21 landings, putting a total of 4 metric tons of payload on the Moon, including the VIPER rover to prospect for lunar resources; four “Moon Fall” drones that can travel up to 50 km and reach areas difficult for humans to access; initial versions of a lunar terrain vehicle capable of surviving up to 150 hours without sunlight; and radioisotope heater units. During this phase NASA will also seek to establish two lunar orbital communications satellite constellations. As part of phase two, running from 2029 to 2032, NASA will seek to secure a site for a lunar base. This phase is projected to entail 27 landings with a total mass of 60 metric tons. These landed payloads would include larger, pressurized rovers, solar and nuclear power sources for surface activities, towers for communication, and excavator rovers.

NASA runs on an eternal cycle of projects constructed from the canniballised remains of the previous uncompleted projects that allows them to keep the process going just a little longer until they can finally say "Well we've actually built the thing now, so we HAVE to use it for SOMETHING". Gateway was the lifeboat for several projects from the 2000s. PPE for example was saved from the Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) and now, like that one sea turtle that makes it to the ocean, its now going to be slapped on a mars mission. Of course, even being fully built and tested doesn't always save you, if you're like the poor guys on the DRACO team and your project doesn't have dual-use capablilities then you can be months away from launch and still get scrapped.

I stand by my current prediction that NASA will perform a few human landings between 2028-2030 before leaving the moon and never returning as the American Empire crumbles.