NASA lunar outpost concepts

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NASA has long floated ideas for a Moon base to keep people living on the Moon for extended times. The Apollo era showed how big space plans can be, with NASA at its strongest budget in the mid-1960s. After Apollo, moon landings stopped in 1972, but interest in a permanent lunar presence never went away. In the 2020s, interest and funding picked up again as NASA works toward a sustainable outpost on the Moon and eventually beyond.

Artemis is the current plan to return humans to the Moon. NASA asked for more money to carry out a crewed mission to the Moon by the mid-2020s and to establish a steady human presence there by the late 2020s. A crew for the next crewed mission, Artemis II, was chosen in 2023. The program aims to land people near the Moon’s south pole, begin building a long-term base, and pave the way for future missions to Mars with the help of U.S. companies and international partners.

Early military ideas and NASA studies shaped the talk of a Moon base long before Artemis. The Lunex Project (1958) was a plan by the U.S. Air Force for a 21-person underground lunar base by around 1968, with a projected cost of about $7.5 billion. Project Horizon (1959) was a U.S. Army study that imagined a lunar fort by 1967, led by a German rocket engineer. It proposed sending soldiers first and gradually building a supply-chain to the Moon, using many rocket launches to transport cargo.

In the 1980s, with the Space Shuttle era in full swing, NASA explored how to return to the Moon using its existing and planned infrastructure. A Johnson Space Center team looked at building an 18-person base on the Moon sometime between 2005 and 2015, including a small, semi-permanent camp in the mid-2000s, a lunar orbiting station to support operations, and facilities for mining, processing lunar materials, and growing plants. The plan envisioned a growing surface base with labs and workshops by the early 2010s and a final, self-sustaining Moonbase by the late 2010s. These studies helped define what a future Moon base might need.

NASA’s Timeline built on more formal studies in the 2000s. The Exploration Systems Architecture Study (ESAS) was released after the 2004 Vision for Space Exploration, which aimed to return people to the Moon and then go to Mars. In 2006 NASA described a lunar outpost near one of the Moon’s poles, in an area that has sunlight most of the time but is next to regions that may hold useful resources in shadow. The idea was to place a base on the rim of Shackleton crater in the south polar region, where sunlight could power operations and permanently shadowed areas could shelter volatile materials for future use. India’s Chandrayaan-1 helped identify the exact location for such an outpost.

Key components of the outpost idea included an Altair lander to bring four astronauts and cargo, and a plan for crews to visit in seven-day increments at first, then stay longer as power, rovers, and living quarters were ready. The initial Moon missions were hoped to begin around 2020, with subsequent longer stays to prepare for journeys to Mars. Over time, U.S. space policy shifted with changing administrations, and plans evolved toward a broader, open-ended effort rather than a single fixed timetable.

The Artemis program expanded this approach. It couples NASA leadership with commercial and international partners to land at the south pole, establish several temporary camp locations, and eventually build a fixed Foundational Surface Habitat as part of an ongoing Artemis Base Camp in the 2030s. A nearby lunar orbiting platform, called the Lunar Gateway, would act as a communications hub and staging area for missions to the surface.

Funding has varied. In 2018 Congress backed early studies for a lunar outpost, with hundreds of millions of dollars allocated for research and planning. Advocates say the goal is not just to explore, but to extend human presence outward into the solar system, using the Moon as a stepping stone for longer voyages.

Critics have argued that the money could be better spent on robotic missions, a direct trip to Mars, or other space science. Some writers and commentators have said a Moon base would be expensive and its scientific return could be limited compared to other missions. Even notable space figures have voiced different views: some support a Mars-focused plan, while others argue for international partnerships and new approaches to lunar exploration.

Today, the plan remains to land people on the Moon, set up a sustainable presence, and use the Moon as a launch point for future space exploration. The polar region, with its mix of sunlight and water-bearing shadows, is central to many concepts, because water ice could help support long-term living and fuel production. The path forward continues to unfold as NASA, its partners, and the public weigh the best way to explore and inhabit the Moon for the long term.