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WASHINGTON – NASA is speeding up its plans to send Americans back to the moon, and this time, the US space agency has announced that it would be here to stay.
Jim Bridenstine, NASA director, told reporters Thursday that the agency was planning to accelerate the plans backed by President Donald Trump to return to the moon, using private companies.
"It is important that we return to the moon as soon as possible," said Bridenstine at a meeting at NASA headquarters in Washington, adding that he hoped to welcome astronauts by 2028 .
"This time, when we go to the moon, we are going to stay in. We will not leave flags and footprints before going home without going back for 50 years," he said. he declares.
"We do it completely differently than any other country in the world.What we do is make it sustainable so that you can come and go regularly with humans."
Eugene Cernan is the last person to walk on the moon in December 1972, during the Apollo 17 mission.
Before humans get back on the lunar surface, NASA plans to land an unmanned vehicle on the Moon by 2024 and is already launching a call for bids to the booming private sector to build the probe.
The deadline for submitting offers is March 25th. A first selection is planned for the month of May. This deadline is tight for an agency whose previous projects have fallen behind previous years and exceed the budget of several billion.
"For us, if we had any wishes, I would like to fly this calendar year.We want to go fast," said Thomas Zurbuchen, deputy administrator of NASA's science mission directorate.
However, he admitted that "we may not be able".
NASA's accelerated plans materialize the space policy directive that Trump signed in December 2017, envisioning a return to the moon ahead of a manned Mars mission, probably in the 2030s.
NASA plans to build a small space station, Gateway, on the Moon's orbit by 2026. It will serve as a bridge for travel to and from the lunar surface, but will not be with a permanent crew like the International Space Station (ISS). currently in Earth orbit.
As with the ISS, NASA would solicit the participation of other countries, which could provide some of the necessary elements, such as modules for the Moon Station or vehicles allowing surface landings.
"We want many providers to compete on costs and innovation," Bridenstine said.
Prior to this manned program, NASA had also insisted on sending scientific instruments and other technological tools to the moon in 2020 or even before the end of this year.
The agency also asks for quick offers for the manufacture and launch of such instruments, offering financial incentives for this to happen quickly.
"Speed is important to us," said Thomas Zurbuchen, badociate director of NASA's Science Mission Directorate. "We do not anticipate that each of these launches or landings will be successful – we take risks."
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