Space News by Jeff Foust — January 24, 2020
The leadership of the House Science Committee introduced a NASA authorization bill Jan. 24 that seeks to significantly alter NASA’s current plans to return humans to the moon and make them part of an effort to send humans to Mars.
The bill, designated H.R. 5666 and introduced by Rep. Kendra Horn (D-Okla.), chair of the committee’s space subcommittee, seeks to put a human return to the moon within the context of a larger “Moon to Mars†program that would no longer have the goal of returning humans to the surface of the moon by 2024, as Vice President Pence announced in March 2019.
“The Moon to Mars program shall have the interim goal of sending a crewed mission to the lunar surface by 2028 and a goal of sending a crewed mission to orbit Mars by 2033,†the bill states.
NASA’s current plans for returning to the moon call for the development of a lunar Gateway in orbit around the moon, which would serve as a staging area for expeditions to the lunar surface. The bill would instead call this facility the “Gateway to Mars,†and allow it to be based elsewhere in cislunar space. The Gateway would also not be required to support lunar landings.
More:
https://spacenews.com/house-introduces-nasa-authorization-bill-that-emphasizes-mars-over-moon/