In Brief Plans for an electric-powered space tug are now under review by scientists. The space tug would transport cargo between the moon and Earth without expensive fuels, helping to lower the cost of space travel and make it more accessible. Cutting Cargo Costs

NASA seeks todelvedeeper into the mysteries of oursolar system with the help of astronauts, but cost remains a significantbarrier for any plans. Launching anything from Earth is costly, especially bulky loads of cargo the driving force behind theinflated the price of the Apollo moon program to $109 billion (in 2010 dollars). For spaceflight to ever be accessible to everyone, prices will need to drop substantially.

Fortunately, scientists are thinking of new ways to make space travel cheaper every day. Research describing one of these ideas was just published: an electric-powered lunar space tug. The reusable tug would fly between Earth and the moon, transportingcargo and possibly even technicians and other astronauts.It would be refueled at a low Earth orbit fuel depot and maintained by astronauts on the moon and the International Space Station (ISS) for as long as its in service.

A team from aerospace company Thales Alenia (which built several modules for the ISS) and the Polytechnic University of Turin are now studying the conceptual design for the tug. The greatest advantage the tug has is that it would run on Hall Effect Thrusters, which use electric propulsion. In this sense, the tug would be powered much like NASAs Dawn spacecraft and Japans Hayabusa 2.

This project is just one of many possibilities, asthe competition to find ways to explore space for less money is still heating up. This month SpaceX became the first privately owned company to use the same spacecraft to perform multiple orbital flights. Still, even SpaceX has competition: Bigelow Airspace, Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin, and Boeing are all competing for space travel contracts. This healthy competition is quickly changing the costs associated with space travel, and ultimately will open the opportunityup to commercial passengers, much in the same way competition between airlines helped makeflying commonplace in the last century.

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Electric Space Tug Could Make Moon Flights More Economical Than Ever - Futurism