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NASA wants to use the moon to establish commercial partnerships and develop technologies that could one day be applied to the exploration of Mars.
Credit: NASA Goddard
NASA is staring at the moon and the agency has selected the first batch of commercial project proposals that it will include on its return trip to our nearest neighbor and then to Mars.
The selected companies will be unveiled Thursday, November 29 during a press conference held at NASA headquarters in Washington, California. NASA's director Jim Bridenstine will lead the press conference. The event will start at 14h. EST (1900 GMT); you can watch it live on Space.com, with the kind permission of NASA TV, or directly on the agency's website.
"Working with American companies is the next step towards conducting long-term scientific studies and human exploration of the Moon and Mars," NASA officials wrote in a media alert.
Bridenstine will be joined by representatives of the companies whose projects have been selected, as well as by Thomas Zurbuchen, who heads NASA's Science Mission Directorate; astronaut Stan Love; Andrea Mosie, head of the Apollo Samples Laboratory; and Barbara Cohen, a scientist who works for NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission.
NASA's current plans are for humans to gravitate around the moon by 2023 and land later in the decade, but the agency has been expected to precede crewed flights with robotic missions.
The integration of American companies is one of the key principles of NASA's plan to extend human space exploration to the Moon and Mars. Private partners will help keep costs as low as possible. (International partnerships are also planned, for the same reason.)
Email Meghan Bartels at [email protected] or follow her. @meghanbartels. follow us @Spacedotcom and Facebook. Original article on Space.com.
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