NASA lunar outpost concepts
NASA proposed several concept moonbases for achieving a permanent presence of humans on the Moon since the late 1950s. Research and exploration of the Moon have been a large focus of the organization since the Apollo program. NASA's peak budget was in 1964-1965, when it comprised 4% of all federal spending in service of the Apollo Moon landing project.[1] Though lunar landings ever since the conclusion of the Apollo program in 1972 have ceased, interest in establishing a permanent habitation on the lunar surface or beyond low Earth orbit has remained steady. Recently, renewed interest in lunar landing has led to increased funding and project planning. NASA requested an increase in the 2020 budget of $1.6 billion, in order to make another crewed mission to the Moon under the Artemis program by 2025 (originally 2024), followed by a sustained presence on the Moon by 2028.[2] A crew was selected for the planned crewed mission, Artemis II,[3] in April 2023.