NASA reported on the difficulties of implementing the lunar program

The implementation of the lunar program of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is associated with a number of difficulties that the agency has to overcome right now, Carlos Garcia-Galan, head of the NASA lunar base program, said in an interview on May 31.

"There are challenges of various levels of complexity. The most urgent and closest task for us at the moment is to achieve the pace of work that we have set for ourselves, allowing us to implement our plans," he told RIA Novosti.

According to Garcia-Galan, if about four launches are planned this year, then next year their number may grow to about ten, and then to twelve, which will require work at the limit of production capabilities and the creation of a large number of landers and their tests.

He also noted that lighting is difficult when landing on the South Pole of the Moon: the sun is low above the horizon, which creates deep shadows and long periods of darkness. In addition, the need to develop systems capable of withstanding sudden temperature changes, depending on the location of the device in the shade, on the surface or in areas of constant shade, remains a serious challenge.

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On the same day, Austrian cosmonaut Franz Fibek reported that the crew's sense of humor helped them maintain a favorable atmosphere at the Mir station. He noted that the team has developed close friendly relations. According to him, humor was an important part of communication within the group. It is specified that Fibek worked at the Mir station in 1991 together with cosmonauts Alexander Volkov and Toktar Aubakirov.