In the last post I reported that new goals for NASA, established by the current Administration, not only involve sending astronauts to Mars, but a return series of trips to the moon. Instead of Apollo, the astronauts will travel in an “apollo-like” spacecraft called CEV (Crew Exploration Vehicle). I think NASA administrators are involved in naming this vehicle—the CEV?

Here is what it looks like:

It’s bigger than Apollo (18 feet vs 12 feet in diameter) and can hold four astronauts; it will also be launched by a smaller rocket than the Saturn V which shot Apollo into orbit; all four astronauts will be able to land on the moon, and when it returns to Earth, it will return to a land-base location, rather than being dropped into the ocean as the Apollo missions did. Returning to the moon won’t happen until, perhaps, 2018, with missions to Mars beyond that. Here is the moon lander:

It will be expensive to do this. However, perhaps there is a way to retain the smaller, more scientific projects that might be cut from future NASA budgets. Surely, an integrated approach, combings space exploration, engineering and technology, and science should be at the heart of any NASA project.