Commercial space industry wants a piece of NASA’s deep space exploration plans.
Before the 2016 presidential election, businessman Robert Bigelow was one of the few people in the aerospace community to openly support Donald Trump's presidential campaign. Now that Trump is in office, Bigelow says the new administration is moving forward with a realistic space exploration plan that focuses on the Moon, rather than Mars.
"Finally, we have someone practically engaged in the conversation here," he said Friday, during an interview with Ars. "The prior administration excluded the Moon, but that was really unrealistic. With Mars, there are issues with cost, and more. The Moon offers by far the most practical target in the near term, and of course the Moon has a far superior business case at the current time than asteroids or Mars."
During recent weeks, Bigelow said he has spoken with Trump administration officials interested in space and talked about plans to jump-start NASA's human exploration program. Senior leaders within the Trump administration are interested in reaching some significant milestones by the end of President Trump's first term, in 2020. That led Bigelow to formulate a plan to have an orbital, human-tended outpost flying around the Moon by that time.
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