Living on the Moon by 2015

Australian astronaut Andy Thomas was planning to retire in the next couple of years, but wants to help with a NASA project that will hopefully have man living on the moon

The space shuttle veteran is working on a new NASA project to help man live on the moon.
And in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, he revealed his new project may even keep him at NASA for a few more years.
Adelaide-born Thomas had been planning to retire in the next two years but said his new mission would make it hard to leave the famed space agency.

"I'm getting involved in the new lunar exploration project to return to the moon around 2015," Thomas said.

"We're looking at new lunar habitations systems. We are also looking at what we are going to do when we get there."

Thomas said NASA's mission to start living on the moon would begin with a series of sorties to the planet to conduct site surveys.
These would be followed by several flights on a new payload rocket and separate landing vehicle to drop off resources such as rover exploration vehicles and habitation modules "so they can spend up to six months there."

He said much of the technology developed on the ISS would be used to develop the moon colony which was likely to be on the polar regions where water had been found.
"That opens up the opportunities to develop ways to live off the land," he said.
He added if an invite for a moon mission came, "you wouldn't see me for dust".

source:new.com.au