NASA has been to the moon before but it has been fifty years since that happened. Now, NASA is making plans to return to the moon by 2024 using the Space Launch System rocket. The agency is making grand plans with a new budget to not only get back to the moon but also find a way to use the moon as a waypoint for deep space missions.
Space missions are a costly endeavor and that’s part of the reason NASA hasn’t gone back in so long. Hopefully, with the new funding the agency has gotten, they’ll have a leg up for 2024. The grand plan also includes eventually getting astronauts to Mars. Building and paying for the Space Launch System rocket is not going to be cheap.
“ President Donald Trump has asked NASA to accelerate our plans to return to the Moon and to land humans on the surface again by 2024. We will go with innovative new technologies and systems to explore more locations across the surface than was ever thought possible. This time, when we go to the Moon, we will stay. And then we will use what we learn on the Moon to take the next giant leap – sending astronauts to Mars ”
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine
NASA lays out 4 key reasons why going back to the moon is in our best interest, inspiration, science, exploration, and economy.
The Moon is a treasure chest of science. The lunar samples returned during the Apollo Program dramatically changed our view of the solar system. Yet, we are just scratching the surface of knowledge about the Moon. We believe the poles of the Moon hold millions of tons of water ice. That ice represents power. It represents fuel. It represents science. The farther humans venture into space, the more important it becomes to manufacture materials and products with local resources. We know the Moon can tell us more about our own planet, and even our own sun. There is so much more to learn – knowledge we can acquire with a sustained human and robotic presence on the Moon.
NASA
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Last Updated on February 3, 2021.
