On August 20, US President Donald Trump signed the National Security Presidential Memorandum ordering NASA to study commercial ways to send humans to Mars.
Trump wants to give a major boost to space transportation and plans to “allow more than 1,000 launches and re-entries on US soil annually by 2030.”
The president wants to accelerate the transition from the current space transportation policy and replace it with one that fosters the growth of this industry, with more space transportation infrastructure, greater private sector participation, and new launch scheduling criteria.
The memorandum aims to facilitate all avenues for NASA to travel to and from the Moon, including commercial robotic access to Mars. The agency has been working on this initiative for decades. “In fact, the Artemis program, which will return humans to the Moon in the coming years, was also created to test the capabilities of the Space Launch System (SLS) and the Orion spacecraft, which will lay the groundwork for transportation to Mars. Artemis I and Artemis II have already been successful in recent years.”
According to statements made two years ago by Joel S. Levine, professor in the Department of Applied Sciences at William & Mary University and consultant for NASA’s Center for Engineering and Safety, preliminary plans envision a crewed mission to Mars in 2035. The mission could take between six and seven months each way, with a planned stay on the Martian surface of 500 days before returning to Earth.
M.Pino
Source: biobiochile
(Reference image source: NASA on Unsplash)
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