The U.S. space agency NASA plans to build a solar-powered lunar base where residents can live as they prepare for manned flights to Mars.
The base will likely be built at one of the lunar poles and is scheduled to be ready by 2024. The Canadian Space Agency hopes to participate, although no specific role has been determined.
"This is the next step forward in terms of exploring and understanding the universe," explained Hugues Gilbert, the director-general of policy, planning and external relations at the CSA. "We feel that it is very important for Canada to be part of that international effort."
Mr. Gilbert said there are obvious assets Canadians can provide. They include expertise in robotics, as shown by the Canadarm, and an outpost north of Resolute Bay where equipment can be tested under conditions not dissimilar to space.
James Oberg , a 22-year NASA scientist who is now an analyst, said that Canada also brings the knowledge needed to work in a lunar environment which, if certain assumptions bear out, will include both soil and ice.
"Ice and soil together are much worse for drilling than either ice or water alone," said Mr. Oberg, who now runs the website jamesoberg.com. "Canadians have been pioneering those activities . . . and Canada is in a unique position to assist with that."
U.S. President George W. Bush has announced a plan to return astronauts to the moon by 2020, after what will be, by then, a 48-year absence. The base is to be ready four years later.
Mr. Oberg noted the parallel with the delay before Operation Deep Freeze, which established a U.S. research presence in Antarctica, but didn't begin until 44 years after Roald Amundsen reached the South Pole.
The technological hurdles NASA must leap are not too high, Mr. Oberg said, though he did cite two specific challenges. Exposure to solar radiation will pose problems for long-term moon residents, as will the corrosive effects of lunar dust that devastated equipment and space suits during last century's visits.
An estimated price tag for the lunar base has not been publicized. Whatever the final cost, Mr. Gilbert said that the CSA's current budget would not allow a substantial role unless it is either increased or redistributed.
