The Orion crew capsule is a piece of developed technology that would be put to use on the proposed lunar orbiting station. But at what cost to our ultimate dreams of space exploration? Image credit: NASA.

NASA’s idea for a space station in lunar orbit takes humanity nowhere

Want humans to go to the Moon or Mars? Then let’s stop wasting time and resources and go do it!

“We had this whole big beautiful place for discovery, and all we could think to do with it was wipe out everything that made it worth discovering.”
-Buzz Aldrin

With the end of the space shuttle program and the planned decommissioning of the International Space Station on the horizon, NASA is strongly debating what its next steps for human spaceflight will be. The Obama-era plans of asteroid redirection and capture appear to be disfavored, paving the way for a bold new direction. While many are looking to Mars with great hope, some are calling to return to the Moon first. But the proposal the administration recently put forth advocates for none of them, instead choosing to pursue a crewed lunar orbiter, claiming that it paves the way for future exploration missions. Yet the evidence points to a far different conclusion: spending our resources here would squander our resources and accomplish very little from both scientific and technological perspectives.