Nasa has justified its decision to return to the moon before putting people on Mars, insisting that the two missions will be “supportive of each other”.
In one of his first major speeches as Nasa administrator, Jim Bridenstine said on Wednesday that those waiting enthusiastically for a Nasa-funded trip to the red planet shouldn’t be worried about the agency’s current plans.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
“If some of you are concerned that our focus in the coming years is the moon, don’t be,” he told the Humans to Mars Summit in Washington DC. “The president’s vision has emphasised that our Exploration Campaign will establish American leadership in the human exploration of Mars. We are doing both the moon and Mars, in tandem, and the missions are supportive of each other.”
“In fact, our return to the surface of the moon will allow us to prove and advance technologies that will feed forward to Mars: precision landing systems, methane engines, orbital habitation, surface habitation, surface mobility, long duration life support operations, and much more, that will enable us to land the first Americans on the red planet.”
Although the focus is currently on the moon, Space.com writes that Nasa’s upcoming Mars 2020 rover mission is searching for potentially habitable environments on the Red Planet. The agency is keen to store samples with a view to returning them to Earth for further research.
-
Africa could become the next frontier for space programsThe Explainer China and the US are both working on space applications for Africa
-
NASA reveals ‘clearest sign of life’ on Mars yetSpeed Read The evidence came in the form of a rock sample collected on the planet
-
SpaceX breaks Starship losing streak in 10th testspeed read The Starship rocket's test flight was largely successful, deploying eight dummy satellites during its hour in space
-
NASA is moving away from tracking climate changeThe Explainer Climate missions could be going dark
-
Hurricanes are not exclusive to Earth. They can happen in space.Under the radar These storms may cause navigational problems
-
Why does the US want to put nuclear reactors on the moon?Today's Big Question The plans come as NASA is facing significant budget cuts
-
Answers to how life on Earth began could be stuck on MarsUnder the Radar Donald Trump plans to scrap Nasa's Mars Sample Return mission – stranding test tubes on the Red Planet and ceding potentially valuable information to China
-
Do we need more right-wing scientists?Talking Point Academics have a 'responsibility' to demonstrate why research matters to people who are not politically left-leaning, says Wellcome boss
