NASA’s moon base plans, conceptualized just a few months ago, are rolling out in earnest as the space agency maps out a strategy to deliver landers, rovers, buggies and other assets to the lunar surface.On Tuesday, NASA said it will pay about $590 million dollars to three companies — Astrobotic, Firefly and Intuitive Machines — for four missions to deliver science instruments and other cargo to the moon. Astrobotic was the only vendor to be awarded two missions.The agency also floated the possibility of repurposing a Mars rover, nicknamed Promise, for use on the moon.AdvertisementAdvertisementThese moves support a broader effort to use robotic vehicles to build up infrastructure that can be used by future human explorers on the moon.The deals announced Tuesday are components of what Carlos García-Galán, NASA’s program executive for the moon base, called “Phase 1” of a plan to build out a permanent lunar settlement where astronauts will live and work. This initial phase is expected to last through 2028 and cost about $10 billion.NASA announced other deals under the first phase of the program last month, including plans to rename three previously contracted missions as “Moon Base” specific. The agency also awarded additional contracts in May — worth over $1 billion altogether — for building buggies to drive on the lunar surface and deploying drones to the moon to help map a moon base location, perhaps as soon as 2028.Phases 2 and 3 — which include plans to build the first pressurized habitats on the moon and install power generators — lay out NASA’s vision to continue building up its moon base in the 2030s. Eventually, NASA says it hopes astronauts will live and work in “semi-permanent” settlements.AdvertisementAdvertisementIt’s all part of the space agency’s plan to compete with China, whose space pro …
