Author: Brandon A. Weber / Source: Big Think
- NASA’s new plan will span the next 10 to 20 years.
- First, the Moon, and things around the Moon. Then, Mars.
- One of the primary goals? To privatize and get industry to eventually fund all of it.
NASA this week unveiled its new plan that many are calling “bold” and other lofty adjectives, with a 10-to-20-year span, each phase of which is somewhat dependent on what is learned during the first missions.
It’s certainly aiming high: it’s going into low-Earth Orbit, to the Moon and its orbit (‘cislunar’), and then on to Mars and possibly other moons and surfaces, to be precise.So what are the core goals of this new effort?
Glad you asked.
NASA’s five-part plan
Credit: NASA
In a press release and more in-depth document released by the space agency, it lists the primary objectives:
“The Exploration Campaign has five strategic goals:
- Transition U.S. human spaceflight activities in low-Earth orbit to commercial operations that support NASA and the needs of an emerging private sector market.
- Lead the emplacement of capabilities that support lunar surface operations and facilitate missions beyond cislunar space.
- Foster scientific discovery and characterization of lunar resources through a series of robotic missions.
- Return U.S. astronauts to the surface of the Moon for a sustained campaign of exploration and use.
- Demonstrate the capabilities required for human missions to Mars and other destinations.”
These certainly mean more dollars headed toward research and development; while the…
The post NASA unveils new goals for Moon, Mars, including space privatization appeared first on FeedBox.