As NASA pushes towards making a multi-planetary species a one-year lunar pit stop could be just what’s needed. The agency’s plans were unveiled this month at the Human to Mars Summit in Washington DC and included sending astronauts to the moon for one whole year in preparation for the future planned Mars missions.
There will be two phases to this. The first involves launching four manned vehicles into orbit between the Moon and Earth. These will transport materials in which to build infrastructure and will occur between 2018 and 2026. Then, phase two will take off in 2027. This is when NASA will launch the Deep Space Transport (DST) into orbit followed by the crew who will be living up there for a whole year.
The journey to Mars isn’t set to take place until the 2030’s, so there’s still plenty of time to prepare for this and if NASA thinks to go to the moon is the best way to do this, then why not? However, this current plan that’s been put in place is dependent on if the Space Launch System (SLS) is completed in time, and currently, it’s about three years behind schedule. Any more delays and NASA may have to rethink its proposed timeline for the missions.
Or maybe the answer lies in the agency teaming up with the private sector that’s currently producing the Falcon Heavy vehicle. The whole project has a budget of around a trillion dollars over 25 years, so you can be assured we’ll definitely be visiting sometime soon as a stepping stone for what’s to come.
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