{"id":18110,"date":"2019-03-26T19:16:59","date_gmt":"2019-03-26T11:16:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/vp-mike-pence-sets-5-year-deadline-for-landing-americans-at-moons-south-pole\/"},"modified":"2019-03-26T19:16:59","modified_gmt":"2019-03-26T11:16:59","slug":"vp-mike-pence-sets-5-year-deadline-for-landing-americans-at-moons-south-pole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/vp-mike-pence-sets-5-year-deadline-for-landing-americans-at-moons-south-pole\/","title":{"rendered":"VP Mike Pence sets 5-year deadline for landing Americans at moon\u2019s south pole"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"National
Vice President Mike Pence addresses the audience attending a meeting of the National Space Council at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala., with an American flag, space artifacts and rocket models in the background. (NASA via YouTube)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Vice President Mike Pence today called for American astronauts to return to the moon in five years, laying down a challenge comparable to the 1960s Space Race.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in a space race today, just as we were in the 1960s, and the stakes are even higher,\u201d Pence declared at a meeting of the National Space Council at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala., next to NASA\u2019s Marshall Space Flight Center.<\/p>\n

For an example, he pointed to China\u2019s Chang\u2019e-4 mission, which put a lander and a rover on the moon\u2019s far side in January. He also noted that Russia has been charging NASA as much as $80 million per seat for rides to the International Space Station in the wake of the space shuttle fleet\u2019s retirement in 2011.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s not just competition against our adversaries,\u201d Pence said. \u201cWe\u2019re also racing against our worst enemy: complacency.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pence, who chairs the National Space Council, acknowledged that the cost of an accelerated push back to the moon would be great, but said that \u201cthe costs of inaction are greater.\u201d NASA would be given authority to meet the five-year goal \u201cby any means necessary,\u201d Pence promised.<\/p>\n

He said development of the space agency\u2019s heavy-lift Space Launch System rocket would be accelerated. In follow-up comments, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said Boeing and other SLS contractors had worked out a plan to keep the rocket\u2019s first round-the-moon test launch, known as Exploration Mission 1 or EM-1, on track for 2020.<\/p>\n

If the pace of SLS development isn\u2019t sufficient to get astronauts to the moon by 2024, then the program\u2019s focus would shift to commercial rockets, Pence said. Although he named no names, the obvious alternate candidate would be SpaceX and its Starship \/ Super Heavy launch system, which is in the earliest phase of ground testing.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/JimBridenstine\/status\/1110628722686771200<\/p>\n

Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin space venture could also come in for a piece of the action. For years, Blue Origin has been developing a lunar lander code-named Blue Moon that company executives have said could begin delivering heavy payloads to the moon by 2023. Other companies, ranging from Lockheed Martin to space startups like Moon Express, are developing landers as well.<\/p>\n

Pence said the first lunar missions would target the moon\u2019s south pole, which is thought to harbor frozen water in deep craters and could also offer near-constant sunlight on those craters\u2019 rims. Such resources could open the way for permanent settlements, which is a long-term goal of the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

The space effort will also require development of supporting technology, such as in-situ resource utilization and nuclear reactors for the moon and in other off-world destinations, Pence said.<\/p>\n

Moving on to Mars would be a longer-range goal.<\/p>\n

A five-year time frame for landing humans on the moon is a significant speed-up of the schedule that Pence laid out seven months ago, when he said that the first astronauts would be sent to NASA\u2019s yet-to-be-built Gateway outpost in lunar orbit by 2024. Just last month, Bridenstine made a pitch to have commercial ventures build the hardware needed to put astronauts on the moon via the Gateway by 2028.<\/p>\n

The Gateway came in for scant mention during Pence\u2019s remarks today, and some members of the space council\u2019s Users Advisory Group have suggested that NASA should dispense with the orbital way-station concept.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Lockheed Martin said a schedule aimed at putting humans on the moon by 2024 was \u201caggressive but achievable.\u201d It put forward a mission concept including a stripped-down version of the Gateway and a lunar lander that makes use of technologies from the Orion deep-space capsule that Lockheed Martin is developing for NASA.<\/p>\n