Lunar Commercial Cargo Lite

Eric Berger for Ars Technica:

Richards told Ars that the NASA announcement is significant because it marks the first time NASA has officially signaled its intent to move the commercial transport model beyond low-Earth orbit. Presently, NASA contracts with private companies SpaceX and Orbital ATK to deliver supplies to the International Space Station, and it hopes Boeing and SpaceX begin flying humans into orbit by 2018. NASA is now considering how to extend that model to the Moon, Richards said.

A commercial cargo-style program for getting payloads to the Moon would be wonderfully interesting. It would be well-timed to be used as NASA participation in the Moon Village idea that is talked about within ESA (and pretty much everywhere but the US). Additionally, there seems to be a growing notion that SLS/Orion will be used to support lunar sorties (or longer stays) before venturing out to Mars. Commercial cargo missions would provide extremely valuable payload capacity in support of those missions, and we may even see an entrant take the SpaceX approach of building a cargo spacecraft that can support crew, as well.

A plan for lunar surface missions with SLS/Orion would have such tremendous political capital, that it’s hard to see something like that not coming about. The current vague roadmap for NASA has missions at or near the Moon until the late 2030s, so really, we’re a lander away from seeing astronauts on the lunar surface once again. The idea seems to make too much sense given the political environment we’re in today.

Another interesting thing to consider: if NASA started a lunar commercial cargo program, that would lead nicely to a Martian commercial cargo program. I know one company starting commercial cargo flights to Mars in just a few years.