[ad_1]
NASA's director, Jim Bridenstine, announced Tuesday during a congressional testimony a plan to send the man to Mars by 2033 and ask for more money. money to finance this ambitious plan.
That followed NASA's new plan to land on the Moon of American astronauts by 2024, four years earlier than planned, according to an aggressive plan by US Vice President Mike Pence, called "the declared policy of this government "respect the deadline.
Last week, Pence urged NASA to send American astronauts back to the moon five years ago, warning that if NASA could not do it, it was NASA, not the mission, which had to change.
During the congressional hearing on NASA 's budget for the 2020 fiscal year, Bridenstine said that the goal of sending astronauts to Mars by 2033 was the only one. one of the reasons why NASA had to speed up the landing plan for the moon.
The head of NASA answered the question posed by Eddie Bernice Johnson, a US Congressman, why the country needed an "emergency program for the moon". "The Moon is the testing ground," Bridenstine said.
"We can trace Mars 'landing back up the Moon' s landing. However, NASA's late development of its new heavy-lift rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), can lead to additional challenges in achieving these targets on time.
In addition, SLS replacement options or the purchase of commercial rockets such as Space X's Delta IV and Falcon Heavy rockets are now posing technical problems in terms of thrust capacity, launch pad availability, and reliability. anchor capacity, according to Bridenstine at a public meeting on Monday.
NASA remains attentive to human exploration of Mars in the 2030s and does not specify any particular year, according to NASA's official website.
Given the distance that separates it from Mars, it takes at least six months to get there, making the 2033 schedule tighter.
Bridenstine said NASA was preparing a request for additional funding to reach the Moon 2024 landing goal.
In this year's budget request, NASA planned to devote more than half of its US $ 21 billion budget to building key elements of the exploration campaign that will send astronauts to the moon and to the planet. -of the. But the demand has been made in the spirit of the Moon's landing plan by 2028.
Bridenstine said NASA would have a budget request updated by April 15th.
Xinhua
[ad_2]
Source link