Congress Tells NASA To Stop Messing Around And Get Back To The Moon
The space race is heating up again, and Congress wants NASA to stop messing around with plans to land on an asteroid and get serious about revisiting the moon as a first step to Mars.
The Congressional committee in charge of funding NASA is defunding the space agency’s plan to capture a huge space boulder and park it in orbit around the moon so astronauts can practice on it, according to Space News.
“The Committee believes that neither a robotic nor a crewed mission to an asteroid appreciably contribute to the overarching mission to Mars.”
While ambitious and creative, Congress feels the Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) doesn’t do anything to help get us back to the moon and eventually on to Mars, according to Space News.
“Toward that end, no funds are included in this bill for NASA to continue planning efforts to conduct either robotic or crewed missions to an asteroid.”
The ultimate glass bottom boat tour.
Credit: Scott Kelly/NASA pic.twitter.com/Qf6O1sbTvd
— Planetary Society (@exploreplanets) May 29, 2016
Instead, Congress is telling NASA to get serious about returning to the moon and establishing a lunar colony that could act as a gas station for astronauts traveling to Mars, reports Universe Today.
“NASA is encouraged to develop plans to return to the Moon to test capabilities that will be needed for Mars, including habitation modules, lunar prospecting, and landing and ascent vehicles.”
Congress is also telling NASA to continue planning a mission to Jupiter’s moon, Europa, as planetary scientists hope its warm, interior Earth-like oceans could harbor life. The space agency was given $260 million for the mission, even though it only requested $49.6 million.
As part of that Europa mission, NASA is hoping to send a lander to the surface of Jupiter’s moon, and even possibly a robotic submarine to explore the interior oceans, according to ArsTechnica.
“We have increased funding for planetary programs and made sure we are going to complete the incredibly important mission. This will be a transformative moment in the history of humanity and the country.”
The space agency is also developing a tiny helicopter for use on Mars. The solar-powered craft would fly just ahead of a rover on the surface of the red planet to act as a scout and discover dangerous terrain or places of interest; it’s being funded at $15 million.
Interstellar propulsion is also being taken more seriously with Congress directing NASA to develop engines capable of reaching 10 percent of the speed of light. This includes Bussard ramjets, Star Trek-style warp engines with matter-antimatter reactors, beamed energy systems designed to propel wafer thin spaceships and anti-matter catalyzed fusion reaction.
Congress hopes NASA will be able to launch a mission to Alpha Centauri in 2069, which would be the 100th anniversary of the moon landing.
NASA has successfully inflated a new experimental room at the International Space Station: https://t.co/LlpQcU9cQl
— AP Politics (@AP_Politics) May 29, 2016
In total, NASA will receive $19.5 billion for 2017; that’s $500 million more than what Obama asked for, and $200 million more than what the Senate proposed.
Other countries are also trying to make their mark in space with both Russia and China gearing up for another space race.
China has plans to build its own space station, Hubble Telescope, reusable rockets, and Mars rover as it gears up for a manned mission to the red planet. Their military-backed space program plans 20 launches this year.
Meanwhile, Russia just announced plans to build a moon taxi to help construct a lunar colony as part of a first step to Mars.
[Photo by NASA via Getty Images]
