The Lunar proposals ranged from reusing the docking systems developed for the Agena target vehicle on more powerful upper stages such as the Centaur, which could propel the spacecraft to the Moon, to complete modifications of the Gemini to enable it to land on the Lunar surface.
Even the most modest proposal, a Lunar Array for Radio Cosmology (LARC), consists of more than a hundred simple-design antennas spread out over a two-kilometer range.
After being accused in so many debates of pandering, this time it was Mr. Romney accusing Mr. Gingrich of playing to the crowd with his proposal for a lunar colony, which Mr. Romney said may be popular around the Kennedy Space Center in Florida but unrealistic in practice.
In retrospect, his ludicrous proposal to establish a lunar colony by 2020 was a sign of desperation.
The initial proposal was for a Lunar orbit rendezvous mission, using a Gemini spacecraft and a lightweight, open cockpit lander, launched by a Saturn C-3 rocket.
The Japanese Lunar-A penetrator spacecraft proposal is a good example of such a single-thruster spin-stabilised prolate spacecraft.
The general said NASA would still work on a heavy-lift rocket even as the budget proposal sought to cancel the Ares V, the behemoth rocket that would have carried the cargo for a lunar mission.
How many miles long is a lunar?
