Man's Imperative is To Go from the Moon to Mars, Argentine Aerospace Engineer Says

September 30, 2009 (LPAC)—Several Argentine media are proudly reporting that the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has just awarded a $750,000 grant to Argentine aerospace engineer Pablo de Leon, to build a prototype system—laboratories, lunar rover, inflatable housing, and spacesuits, among other things—to be used for manned exploration on the Moon.

De Leon, a longtime admirer of Lyndon LaRouche, is the director of the Spacesuit Laboratory in the Department of Space Studies at the University of North Dakota. He emphasized in several interviews that the goal of all his work is a manned mission to Mars. NASA proposes to test the equipment De Leon has designed for a manned lunar mission, expected to last at least 180 days, for later use on Mars. He has already designed and produced for NASA the NDX-1 space suit, a prototype of what would be used on Mars, and will finish the NDX-2 prototype suit for use on the Moon, by the end of the year.

De Leon's proposed system for a Moon/Mars mission includes a motorized vehicle with a pressurized module, in which astronauts can travel and sleep, without having to wear their bulky space suits. This would give them the ability to travel fairly far from the lunar base, exploring and conducting experiments that weren't possible during the much shorter Apollo missions.

De Leon proposes covering the habitat structure with lunar dust, to protect it, and its human residents, from dangerous solar radiation.

The Argentine engineer maintains close ties to aerospace and scientific circles in his native country, and is the founder of the Argentine Space Research Association.

For more on LaRouche's Moon-Mars program: LPACTV: From the Moon to Mars - The New Economics