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eBook Category: Technology/Science
eBook Description: US military bases on the Moon aren't just the stuff of science fiction. Around 1960, the US Air Force and the US Army both produced plans for establishing bases on the Moon, plans which if followed would have drastically changed the history of human space exploration. This article describes the plans, the reasons behind them, and why they were never implemented.

eBook Publisher: Fictionwise.com, Published: Artemis, 2002
Fictionwise Release Date: November 2005

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Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [190 KB], eReader (PDB) [32 KB], Palm Doc (PDB) [19 KB], Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [17 KB], Microsoft Reader (LIT) [78 KB] - PocketPC 1.0+ Compatible, Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [88 KB], hiebook (KML) [98 KB], Sony Reader (LRF) [41 KB], iSilo (PDB) [16 KB], Mobipocket (PRC) [20 KB], Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [47 KB], OEBFF Format (IMP) [29 KB]
Words: 5522
Reading time: 15-22 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Format:  Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED

Readers of science fiction from the 1950s and 1960s are well acquainted with stories which featured military bases on the Earth's moon. To a world which had already seen the Cold War competition expand into space, the idea of the military setting up shop on the moon seemed inevitable. That seemingly inevitable event, though, has yet to occur. Why did a military presence on the moon once seem certain, and why didn't it happen? Some of the answers can be found in Project Horizon and the Lunar Expedition Plan (LUNEX), two military proposals floated in the heart of the Cold War and only recently declassified.

Project Horizon

The earliest of the two plans, Project Horizon, was summarized in a study issued by the US Army and dated 9 June 1959. Project Horizon had a stated goal of landing two men on the moon in April of 1965, followed by the establishment of a permanent US outpost with a crew of 12 on the moon by November, 1966. (When either plan spoke of 'men', of course, it meant exactly that. The idea of women participating in the landings or as part of the moon outpost crews simply never appears.)

The launch schedule for Project Horizon can only be characterized as ambitious. In order to make the initial landing and follow-on outpost construction, Project Horizon called for 61 Saturn I and 88 Saturn II launches from April, 1964 to November, 1966. This would have produced an average launch rate of 5.3 Saturn boosters per month.

All told, these launches were expected to deliver almost 500,000 pounds of cargo to the moon. That cargo would consist of construction materials for the base and construction equipment in addition to life sustaining supplies for the base. During the Project Horizon outpost's first year of operation (December, 1966 to December, 1967) another 64 Saturn launches would provide an additional 266,000 pounds of cargo.

Finally, another nine unspecified spacecraft would carry either cargo or personnel from Earth orbit to the moon. As implied by this part of the plan, Project Horizon also envisaged construction of an orbital station as a relay site for moon operations. Unfortunately, the Project Horizon plan provides few details for this facility beyond a crude drawing, a note that it would have a crew of ten, and the statement that "facilities in orbit will be on a minimum essential austere basis." Anyone with experience in the military's definition of 'minimum essential austere' would not have looked forward to spending any time in that facility.