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Growing up, the space race of the '60s m & # 39; captivated. My grandfather instilled in me the love of space exploration, mainly because he was friends with the late Apollo 15 astronaut Jim Irwin. I had the pleasure of meeting him, although I was too young to remember him, but the photo that he autographed for me is proudly hanging in my hallway at home. .
Even if I continued to interest myself in the Space Shuttle program, it did not hold me like the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. I have long been disappointed not to have traveled outside the Earth 's orbit since the age of one month. At least two generations have escaped the thrill and excitement of the moon, but this drought will soon end.
Vice President Mike Pence announced Tuesday that the United States was aiming to send astronauts back to the moon by 2024 – that's right, in five years! Pence spoke at the National Space Council meeting at the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, where he presented a plan to send American men and women to the moon in less time. had only been needed in the United States in the sixties.
Referring to President Trump's Space Policy Directive 1 (SPD-1), which he signed in 2017, the Vice President explained how the original goal of returning to the Moon is Was not enough:
The truth is that despite the dedication of the men and women who design, build and test the SLS, you all know that the program is plagued by bureaucratic inertia, what some call the 'paralysis of the'. 39; analysis. " with great disappointment in recent weeks, that the date of his first flight for the SLS was postponed to 2021.
You know, after years of cost overruns and staggered delays, we are actually told that the sooner we can return to the moon is 2028. So it would be 18 years after the launch of the SLS program and 11 years after the President of the United States asked NASA to send American astronauts back to the moon.
Ladies and gentlemen, that just is not enough. We are better than that. It took us eight years to go to the moon the first time, 50 years ago, when we had never done it before, and it should not take us 11 years.
Pence said such an ambitious goal would require an "all-around" approach and would require a partnership between public and private space companies. He also noted that the return to the moon is an essential goal as we are not the only ones trying to intensify the game of space exploration:
We have the technology to return to the moon and renew American leadership in the exploration of the human space. What we need now is the urgency.
Make no mistake: we are in a race for space today, as in the 1960s, and the stakes are even greater.
Last December, China became the first nation to land on the other side of the moon and revealed its ambition to seize the strategic heights of the moon and become the nation par excellence of space.
And for more than seven years, without a viable human space launch program, Russia charges the United States more than $ 80 million per seat each time an American astronaut travels to the International Space Station.
But it's not just a competition against our opponents; We are also running against our worst enemy: complacency.
NASA's director Jim Bridenstine echoed Pence's statement and said the agency would be ready to meet the following goals:
This is a good time to take up this challenge and I assured the Vice President that we NASA members were taking up the challenge.
We will act in the days and weeks ahead to achieve these goals. We have defined a clear plan for NASA's exploration campaign that covers three strategic areas: Low Earth Orbit, Moon and Mars and deeper into space.
I have already led a new alignment within NASA to ensure we effectively support this effort, which includes the creation of a new mission direction responsible for the formulation and implementation of the project. Exploration development activities.
The moon is not the end goal. Although the moon offers many opportunities for exploration and study, it will also serve as a gateway to our Mars missions. The Moon on Mars program will include building an outpost on the moon that will help us get to Mars by 2030.
Pence announced that our neighbors in Canada have agreed to help us in this effort.
This news excites and wakes up the little child in me. I like the idea that, shortly before, Americans are walking on the moon again and are leading the way in the exploration of space. I can not wait to see my niece – who recently decided that she wanted to become an astronaut – take her first steps on the moon or maybe even make her way to Mars.
I just hope and pray that we will not let this dream escape us.
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