The Associated Press reports that it will cost $104 billion to return astronauts to the moon by 2018. 
The $104 billion price tag, spread over 13 years, represents 55% of what the Apollo moon-landing program cost measured in constant dollars, Griffin said. Apollo spanned eight years. The objective is to pay as you go and what you can afford, he noted.
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said:
The $104 billion price tag, spread over 13 years, represents 55% of what the Apollo moon-landing program cost measured in constant dollars. Apollo spanned eight years. The objective is to pay as you go and what you can afford, he noted.
$104 billion must be the federal equivalent of a shoestring.
The new lunar exploration plan uses an uninspiring design that combines the space shuttle with the capsule of an earlier NASA era:
The new space vehicle design uses shuttlelike rocket parts, an Apollo-style capsule and lander capable of carrying four people to the surface. The rockets — there would be two, a small version for people and a bigger one for cargo — would come close in height to the 363-foot Saturn 5 moon rocket. They would be built from shuttle booster rockets, fuel tanks and main engines, as well as moon rocket engines. The so-called crew exploration vehicle perched on top would look very much like an Apollo capsule, albeit larger."Think of it as Apollo on steroids," Griffin said.
Anticipating complaints like mine that the new spaceship is uninspiring Griffin said:
"It's a significant advancement over Apollo. Much of it looks the same, but that's because the physics of atmospheric entry haven't changed recently," he said. "...We really proved once again how much of it all the Apollo guys got right."
This concept could and should have been developed more than twenty years ago. This might be adequate for a "quick" return to the moon, but I can't believe it is close to being adequate for a Mars mission. So far back to the future that we are again planning to land via parachute. Where's Burt Rutan when you need him.
NASA has much more information about the new lunar exploration plan here.
John Logsdon, director of George Washington University's space policy institute disagrees saying that the plan makes good sense emphasizing achieving goals rather than elegance.
At Big Lizards, Dafydd agrees with that we could do better.
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