{"id":18058,"date":"2019-05-13T22:29:30","date_gmt":"2019-05-13T14:29:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/amid-the-talk-about-moon-missions-mars-fans-push-for-a-share-of-the-space-spotlight\/"},"modified":"2019-05-13T22:29:30","modified_gmt":"2019-05-13T14:29:30","slug":"amid-the-talk-about-moon-missions-mars-fans-push-for-a-share-of-the-space-spotlight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/amid-the-talk-about-moon-missions-mars-fans-push-for-a-share-of-the-space-spotlight\/","title":{"rendered":"Amid the talk about moon missions, Mars fans push for a share of the space spotlight"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_498147\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-498147\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-498147\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/190513-mars-mission-630x354.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"630\" height=\"354\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/190513-mars-mission-630x354.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/190513-mars-mission-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/190513-mars-mission-1260x709.jpg 1260w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-498147\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artist\u2019s conception depicts a crewed mission to Mars. (NASA \/ JPL-Caltech Illustration \/ 2004)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>As NASA shifts the focus of its space exploration effort to the moon, the advocates of Mars exploration and settlement have a message for future lunar explorers: Don\u2019t get too comfortable.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI do think the moon should be included in the plan for human expansion into space,\u201d Robert Zubrin, president of the Mars Society and author of a new book titled \u201cThe Case for Space,\u201d told GeekWire. \u201cBut we don\u2019t want it to become an obstacle for further human expansion into space.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Chris Carberry, executive director of Explore Mars, takes a similar stance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf we spend years and years and years getting there, and then we decide we\u2019re going to stay there for a long time, it could delay Mars by decades,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Future Mars exploration will be grabbing a share of the spotlight once more this week at the annual Human to Mars Summit, sponsored by Carberry\u2019s nonprofit group in Washington, D.C. Among the speakers on the agenda are NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, other officials from NASA and the European Space Agency who are planning Mars missions, and Paul Wooster, one of the engineers leading SpaceX\u2019s charge to the Red Planet.<\/p>\n<p>The three-day conference will be live-streamed from start to finish, starting at 8:30 a.m. ET (5:30 a.m. PT) on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"ls_embed_1557770824\" src=\"https:\/\/livestream.com\/accounts\/7167144\/events\/8647819\/player?width=640&amp;height=360&amp;enableInfoAndActivity=true&amp;defaultDrawer=&amp;autoPlay=false&amp;mute=false\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span> <\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Bridenstine has been talking a lot more about the moon than Mars lately. \u201cThis time, when we go to the moon, we\u2019re actually going to stay,\u201d he told reporters in February.<\/p>\n<p>Jeff Bezos, who founded Amazon as well as the privately held Blue Origin space venture, has been saying something similar for years \u2014 most recently last week, when he laid out his latest roadmap for Blue Moon missions to the lunar surface.<\/p>\n<p>SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk is also on the moon bandwagon, even though Mars settlement remains his long-term goal. \u201cWe should have a lunar base by now,\u201d Musk said in 2017. \u201cWhat the hell is going on?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The moon looms larger thanks to a push from the White House and Vice President Mike Pence, who heads the recently reconstituted National Space Council. The Trump administration\u2019s timetable calls for putting American astronauts on the moon by the end of 2024, which represents a significant speed-up in NASA\u2019s plans.<\/p>\n<p>NASA is still working on an estimate for how much extra an accelerated moon program will cost, and it\u2019s not yet clear how a request for more money will be received by Congress. (<strong>Update for 3:20 p.m. ET May 13:<\/strong> President Donald Trump tweeted that an extra $1.6 billion would be sought for the 2020 fiscal year, which is on the low side of what\u2019s thought to be required.)<\/p>\n<p>Why the rush? On one level, it\u2019s an effort to demonstrate America\u2019s continuing dominance in space, amid challenges from China. On another level, planting the U.S. flag on the moon once more would guarantee a historic achievement for what the White House hopes will be President Donald Trump\u2019s second term.<\/p>\n<p>But in the big picture, the moon serves as a proving ground for farther-out space odysseys. The fact that it\u2019s a mere 240,000 miles away, rather than the tens of millions of miles for Mars, reduces the risk and expense for crewed missions.<\/p>\n<p>Mars advocates such as Zubrin and Carberry agree with the argument up to that point. But they\u2019re wary about how NASA intends to execute the plan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe question for Trump and Pence is, are they willing to do what has to be done?\u201d Zubrin said.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_498253\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-498253\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-498253\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/190513-zubrin-630x478.png\" alt=\"Robert Zubrin and &quot;The Case for Space&quot;\" width=\"630\" height=\"478\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/190513-zubrin-630x478.png 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/190513-zubrin.png 706w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-498253\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mars Society President Robert Zubrin is the author of \u201cThe Case for Space: How the Revolution in Spaceflight Opens Up a Future of Limitless Prosperity.\u201d (Prometheus Books \/ The Mars Society)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In Zubrin\u2019s view, NASA\u2019s current approach to moon missions is the wrong way to do it. The mission architecture calls for the construction of an outpost in lunar orbit, known as the Gateway, which would be the base of operations for trips going down to the surface.<\/p>\n<p>Zubrin sees the Gateway as a \u201cLunar Orbit Tollbooth\u201d that\u2019s an unnecessary waste of money. In his book, he outlines an alternate architecture that uses SpaceX\u2019s Falcon Heavy and Falcon 9 rockets, plus a yet-to-be-designed Lunar Excursion Vehicle, to transport payloads and people to the moon without a layover in lunar orbit.<\/p>\n<p>If it\u2019s adopted, the Moon Direct architecture could arguably eliminate the need for NASA\u2019s heavy-lift rocket, the Space Launch System.<\/p>\n<p>That argument is sure to spark pushback in Congress, which has already funded billions of dollars in development costs for SLS and NASA\u2019s Orion deep-space crew capsule. But the way Zubrin sees it, relying instead on commercial ventures such as SpaceX and Blue Origin is exactly what has to be done.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe thing that could enable the moon and Mars in the coming decade is this entrepreneurial space revolution,\u201d he said. \u201cNASA has only barely begun to make use of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Officials at NASA have come around to the view that a permanent presence on the moon is a necessary stepping stone in humanity\u2019s outward push. But Carberry and Zubrin aren\u2019t so sure. They worry that the costs of settling the moon and setting up the infrastructure that\u2019s necessary to extract water ice and other resources could siphon away the funds and political will for Mars missions.<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"callout clearfix\"><strong>More about Moon Direct:<\/strong> Mars maverick lays out low-cost plan for lunar bases<\/h4>\n<p>\u201cIf we\u2019re building a base on the moon, then I can\u2019t imagine going to Mars anytime soon,\u201d Carberry said.<\/p>\n<p>Zubrin, meanwhile, took aim at NASA\u2019s proposal to send astronauts to Mars via the lunar Gateway, on a future spaceship called the Deep Space Transport.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s not feasible, and furthermore, it\u2019s not even attractive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>For decades, Zubrin has advocated a Mars Direct plan that, like Moon Direct, calls for a series of robotic and crewed missions to the Red Planet without side trips \u2014 and he argues that the idea is getting traction thanks to SpaceX\u2019s efforts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMusk wants to go to Mars,\u201d Zubrin noted. \u201cYou don\u2019t see him talking about building a lunar orbiting space station to enable his plan. No one who actually wants to go to Mars would insert such requirements into their mission plan.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For evidence that NASA\u2019s plan needs to go through a paradigm shift, Zubrin points to an independent study from the Institute for Defense Analyses\u2019 Science and Technology Institute, which concludes that the space agency can\u2019t meet a 2033 timetable for sending humans to Mars. A more realistic date would be 2037, the study said.<\/p>\n<p>The study, commissioned by NASA in response to a congressional mandate, attributes the extra delays to the technological risks involved in developing the Deep Space Transport.<\/p>\n<p>Space exploration costs are estimated at more than $217 billion through 2037 \u2014 including $120.6 billion specifically for the elements that\u2019d be needed to get to Mars. The rest of the money would go toward development of hardware for Mars surface missions, plus operations in low Earth orbit and on the moon.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Musk is talking about sending SpaceX\u2019s first crewed mission to Mars in the mid-2020s. Even Musk admits that his timetables are often overly optimistic, but Zubrin says the success of SpaceX and other commercial ventures is likely to force policymakers to \u201ctake a second look\u201d at their plans for future giant leaps.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve had a shot heard round the world here. \u2026 This is going to enable human exploration and settlement of the solar system,\u201d he said. \u201cIt will enable it sooner if NASA embraces it fully.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An artist\u2019s conception depicts a crewed mission to Mars. (NASA \/ JPL-Caltech Illustration \/ 2004) As NASA shifts the focus of its space exploration effort to the moon, the advocates of Mars exploration and settlement have a message for future lunar explorers: Don\u2019t get too comfortable. \u201cI do think the moon should be included in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[367,625,190,5020,4849],"class_list":["post-18058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-mars","tag-moon","tag-nasa","tag-robert-zubrin","tag-space-exploration"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18058"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18058\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}