The United States is gearing up to send robots to the moon as a preliminary step toward the return of humans for the first time since 1972.
Jim Bridenstine, the NASA Administrator, discussed how the agency plans on sending humans back to the moon and to Mars during a meeting of the National Space Council on June 18. He highlighted U.S. President Donald Trump's Space Policy Directive 1, which intends to send robots on the lunar surface.
"The NASA Administrator shall, 'Lead an innovative and sustainable program of exploration with commercial and international partners to enable human expansion across the solar system and to bring back to Earth new knowledge and opportunities,'" NASA cited the President's policy.
Space Policy Directive 1
Under Trump's administration, the American spaceflight will focus on four objectives, the first of which will be to transition into commercial operations to accommodate the private sector.
Prior to the actual moon landing, the agency will send astronauts to long-term missions into the lunar orbit, as well as long-term robotic explorations on the moon. Finally, NASA will send humans to the moon in preparation to Mars exploration and further deep into the solar system.
Bridenstine said there have been a lot of opportunities of going beyond the Earth's orbit, but those efforts were undermined in the past. He followed through one of Trump's speeches saying that the focus of today's space missions is sustainability.
"We have more capabilities now than we ever had as a nation. The idea that we have reusable rockets to bring down the cost of launch an give us more access at a lesser cost than ever before, the militarization of electronics — these capabilities to do more, in fact, with less," Bridenstine said.
Commercialization Of Spaceflights
One of NASA's early directives under the Trump administration is that the International Space Station will no longer receive direct budget support in the year 2025. Bridenstine said this would allow NASA to allocate their resources to go further than low-Earth orbit.
In addition, NASA will also partner with commercial companies as a customer. According to Bridenstine, the Commercial Lunar Payload Services would be an inexpensive project because more providers would mean access to lower prices and greater innovation.
Robot-enabled commercial delivers to the moon should be followed by two mid-sized lander demonstration missions in 2022. NASA said these lander missions will be built under the new leadership of the Science Mission Directorate in partnership with the private sector.
