{"id":17961,"date":"2019-08-20T18:18:58","date_gmt":"2019-08-20T10:18:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/national-space-council-meeting-highlights-moon-and-mars-plan-plus-nuclear-power\/"},"modified":"2019-08-20T18:18:58","modified_gmt":"2019-08-20T10:18:58","slug":"national-space-council-meeting-highlights-moon-and-mars-plan-plus-nuclear-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/national-space-council-meeting-highlights-moon-and-mars-plan-plus-nuclear-power\/","title":{"rendered":"National Space Council meeting highlights moon and Mars plan \u2013 plus nuclear power"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Vice President Mike Pence delivers opening remarks during the sixth meeting of the National Space Council at the National Air and Space Museum\u2019s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va. The space shuttle Discovery towers over him. (NASA Photo \/ Aubrey Gemignani)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The latest meeting of the National Space Council provided a forum to build support for NASA\u2019s twin-focus plan to send astronauts to the moon in preparation for trips to Mars \u2013 and for the idea of using nuclear-powered rockets to get there.<\/p>\n

In contrast to some of the council\u2019s past meetings, today\u2019s session at the National Air and Space Museum\u2019s Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia produced no Space Policy Directives with capital letters. Instead, administration officials \u2013 led by Vice President Mike Pence \u2013 summarily approved a set of recommendations aimed at fostering cooperation with commercial ventures and international partners on NASA\u2019s moon-to-Mars initiative.<\/p>\n

The recommendations give NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine a 60-day timeline for designating an office and submitting a plan for sustainable lunar surface exploration and the development of technologies and capabilities for crewed missions to Mars. At the next National Space Council meeting, Bridenstine is tasked with presenting a plan \u201cto stabilize the Space Launch System and Orion programs and prevent future cost and schedule overruns.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bridenstine pointed out that NASA is already working on elements of Project Artemis, which aims to send the \u201cnext man and the first woman\u201d to the moon by 2024.<\/p>\n

He referred to last week\u2019s announcement that NASA\u2019s Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama would be in charge of developing a crew-capable lunar lander \u2013 one of the pieces in the Artemis puzzle that still has to be identified. Bridenstine also obliquely addressed the rivalry between Marshall and Johnson Space Center in Texas, promising that JSC \u201cis going to be very involved\u201d in lander development.<\/p>\n

Pence said Bridenstine told him that with Congress\u2019 support, \u201cwe can actually start \u2018bending metal\u2019 on the lander in the next year \u2026 whatever that means.\u201d For what it\u2019s worth, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin space venture is among several companies proposing lander concepts for moon missions.<\/p>\n

NASA\u2019s first heavy-lift Space Launch System \u201cwill be fully assembled by the end of this year,\u201d Pence said, in preparation for an uncrewed test flight around the moon and back that\u2019s set for next year. That mission, known as Artemis 1, is to be followed by a crewed circumlunar mission scheduled for as early as 2022 (Artemis 2) and then the first crewed lunar landing since Apollo (Artemis 3).<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s recommendations call on Bridenstine to specify the \u201ccurrent projected launch windows\u201d for Artemis 1 and Artemis 2 at the next council meeting.<\/p>\n