{"id":19213,"date":"2016-10-11T19:59:34","date_gmt":"2016-10-11T11:59:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/obama-talks-up-nasas-vision-for-sending-astronauts-on-giant-leap-to-mars-by-2030s\/"},"modified":"2016-10-11T19:59:34","modified_gmt":"2016-10-11T11:59:34","slug":"obama-talks-up-nasas-vision-for-sending-astronauts-on-giant-leap-to-mars-by-2030s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/obama-talks-up-nasas-vision-for-sending-astronauts-on-giant-leap-to-mars-by-2030s\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama talks up NASA\u2019s vision for sending astronauts on giant leap to Mars by 2030s"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_281116\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-281116\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-281116\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/161011-mars-base-camp-630x354.jpg\" alt=\"Image: Mars Base Camp\" width=\"630\" height=\"354\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/161011-mars-base-camp-630x354.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/161011-mars-base-camp-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/161011-mars-base-camp.jpg 930w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-281116\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artist\u2019s conception shows one configuration for an orbital habitat complex suitable for Mars. (Credit: Lockheed Martin)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>President Barack Obama is throwing a spotlight on&nbsp;NASA\u2019s plan for Mars exploration&nbsp;\u2013 and habitation&nbsp;\u2013 in advance of this week\u2019s White House-backed conference on the frontiers of technology.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have set a clear goal vital to the next chapter of America\u2019s story in space: sending humans to Mars by the 2030s and returning them safely to Earth, with the ultimate ambition to one day remain there for an extended time,\u201d Obama said in an essay published today on CNN.com.<\/p>\n<p>The president\u2019s&nbsp;space vision statement&nbsp;comes in the wake of SpaceX billionaire founder Elon Musk\u2019s unveiling of a plan that could theoretically start putting settlers on Mars before NASA astronauts get there.<\/p>\n<p>That plan calls for building giant rockets that could start trips to Mars in the mid- to late 2020s. It\u2019s not exactly clear how Obama\u2019s vision meshes with Musk\u2019s, but they could conceivably be compatible.<\/p>\n<p>Today Obama highlighted NASA\u2019s recently announced initiative to support the development of deep-space habitats suitable for trips to Mars. That initiative, known as NextSTEP-2, sets aside $65 million over the next two years for six companies to develop on-the-ground habitat prototypes.<\/p>\n<p>The six companies are Bigelow Aerospace, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Orbital ATK, Sierra Nevada Corp. and NanoRacks.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"NASA chooses 6 companies to make space habitats\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GlG69IojGco?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Obama also called attention to the efforts by Boeing and SpaceX to build space taxis for astronauts\u2019 trips to and from the International Space Station. Those taxis could be flying as soon as 2018.<\/p>\n<p>The president didn\u2019t&nbsp;specifically mention NASA\u2019s own multibillion-dollar rocket development program, known as the Space Launch System. That\u2019s the launch system that NASA expects to use to send payloads and people to Mars.<\/p>\n<p>In a NASA blog item that fills in some of the details of Obama\u2019s vision statement, White House science adviser John Holdren and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden similarly talked up space commercialization and habitat development \u2013 while making no mention of the Space Launch System.<\/p>\n<p>Bolden has highlighted the SLS as well as NASA\u2019s Orion deep-space capsule in previous statements about NASA\u2019s \u201cJourney to Mars,\u201d so the fact that those programs weren\u2019t mentioned today shouldn\u2019t be seen as a sign that the Orion-SLS program is in trouble.<\/p>\n<p>However, the fact that so much attention was devoted to commercial space efforts in today\u2019s statements serves as a strong signal that the Obama administration, at least, is open to private-public partnerships for Mars exploration \u2013 and even settlement.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Mars Exploration Zones\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/94bIW7e1Otg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>NASA is already cooperating with&nbsp;SpaceX on a privately funded robotic Mars mission that&nbsp;could be launched as early as 2018.<\/p>\n<p>Today, SpaceX gave Obama\u2019s essay a rave review.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSpaceX was founded with the ultimate goal of helping make humans a multiplanetary species,\u201d company spokesman Phil Larson, a former White House official, told GeekWire via text. \u201cAs Elon said at his recent talk, it will take a combination of public and private efforts to build a self-sustaining city on Mars.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s exciting to see President Obama advocate for the next frontier in human spaceflight, and we look forward to participating in the journey,\u201d Larson said.<\/p>\n<p>In his essay, Obama recalled how he sat on the shoulders of his grandfather as a child, watching as the Apollo astronauts were welcomed back to Hawaii after their missions to the moon.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSomeday, I hope to hoist my own grandchildren onto my shoulders,\u201d Obama wrote. \u201cWe\u2019ll still look to the stars in wonder, as humans have since the beginning of time. But instead of eagerly awaiting the return of our intrepid explorers, we\u2019ll know that because of the choices we make now, they\u2019ve gone to space not just to visit, but to stay \u2013 and in doing so, to make our lives better here on Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Interplanetary exploration is one of the topics on the agenda for Thursday\u2019s White House Frontiers Conference in Pittsburgh, which will be live-streamed. Obama is due to participate in a panel on the future of medicine and health care innovation. Seattle-based speakers at the conference include Blue Origin\u2019s Erika Wagner, W2O Group\u2019s Dana Lewis, Microsoft Research\u2019s Jeannette Wing, Amazon Web Services\u2019 Jed Sundwall&nbsp;and University of Washington law professor Ryan Calo.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An artist\u2019s conception shows one configuration for an orbital habitat complex suitable for Mars. (Credit: Lockheed Martin) President Barack Obama is throwing a spotlight on&nbsp;NASA\u2019s plan for Mars exploration&nbsp;\u2013 and habitation&nbsp;\u2013 in advance of this week\u2019s White House-backed conference on the frontiers of technology. \u201cWe have set a clear goal vital to the next chapter [&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":[5493,367,316],"class_list":["post-19213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-barack-obama","tag-mars","tag-spacex"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19213"}],"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=19213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19213\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}