You've probably heard NASA is winding down the shuttle program, and leaving it to the Russians to support the International Space Station.
You've probably also heard, their new mandate is to go back to the moon by 2020. This has been named the
Constellation Program.
At the Johnson Space Center's Lunar Yard, they are already testing several equipment designs, so they must have started on the design phase, years ago.
I would guess it was back when gas was under $2 a gallon, because they planning on taking SUVs to the Moon.
