NASA is going to reveal detail on its plan to go to the Moon in early February , as it uncover its budget asking for 2019 .
In December Trump signedSpace Policy Directive 1 , which tasked NASA with devolve humans to the Moon rather than pursuing the Journey to Mars labor of theprevious administration .
However , noticeably absent were anyactual detailson how this would be done . NASA is currently build a new arduous - lift rocket , the Space Launch System ( SLS ) , and a crew capsule called Orion , both of which will play a part . It also has program for a distance station near the Moon called theDeep Space Gateway .
No programme have been turn yet for any sort of lunar lander , nor any timeline for Moon exploration . In fact , very minuscule at all has been revealed about what the Moon program will mean , deliver for change NASA ’s near - term destinationfrom Marsto our natural satellite .
But verbalize last week at the Center for Strategic and International Studies ( CSIS ) polite distance forum , NASA Acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot ( acting because Trump has taken more than a year to getanyone closeto running NASA , twice as long as Obama ) said the upcoming FY2019 budget , wait on or around February 5 , would finally reveal some details .
“ We ’ve been working on the program . We ’ve been influence with the judicature , ” he said , reportedSpaceNews . “ I think when the budget come out phratry will see what we ’ve been asked to go do and how we think we ’re going to do it . ”
Of course , by the time this budget comes into effect , it ’ll be just a year until the next presidential election . If Trump is n’t re - elected , and would n’t that be awful , then a new Administration could just as easily modify all these determination again – as has happenedmany timesbefore .
The plan under Obama and his NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden , the Journey to Mars task advert earlier , was to perform a few test flights of Orion in or near Earth orbit before going to Mars . That might have include some sorting of orbiting Mars place in the early 2030s , come after by crewed landing in the late 2030s . Those plans themselves were also rather threadbare .
Now , for better or bad , NASA has a chance to reveal how it plans to return us to the Moon . Hopefully , in a few week , it ’ll be deserving the delay .
