The day before yesterday, US authorities approved a bill that would provide the NASA space agency with a budget of $ 19,508 billion, $ 208 million more than the budget for 2016. Among other things, the government stressed those projects, to which the agency should abandon all its forces, as well as those that should be abandoned for now. Curious is the fact that the bill was passed unanimously, none of the members of Congress spoke out against increasing the budget for space research and development.
So, what should NASA specialists focus on in order to please the country's leadership. First, the allocated budget requires the space agency to do everything possible to ensure that people are in orbit, or even better - on the surface of Mars by the 2030s. The bill separately points out that the current research of outer space should begin with a near-earth orbit, then move closer to the Moon and only then go beyond it. Only after NASA once again manages to conquer the moon, you can think about delivering a person to Mars.
The bill is printed on 146 pages. But we will emphasize only the most curious moments that occur in it. For example, the government demanded that NASA abandon its idea of capturing and delivering to the lunar orbit (or even Earth) large asteroids for their subsequent exploration. Let us remind you that for the first time the Asteroid Redirect Mission project was announced as early as in 2014 and since then the space agency specialists have been constantly working on it. Congress demanded that NASA curtail this initiative and transfer all the already received work and resources to develop a project to send people to Mars.
A project was approved to send a probe to Europe - one of the moons of Jupiter. This space mission has been stirring the minds of scientists for many years, and finally, it was given a green light. Also, NASA is required to expand the permanent presence of a person outside the near-Earth orbit, but how exactly Americans want to achieve this is not specified. Trial unmanned launch of SLS and spacecraft Orion is planned for 2018. In 2021, the same ship will deliver American astronauts to the moon. Also, NASA is committed to developing super- and hypersonic aircraft for the rapid transport of people and cargo. A separate point of the bill is the requirement to strengthen the cybersecurity of the space agency.
While the bill has not yet entered into legal force. Its final approval requires the signature of President Donald Trump, and there is little likelihood that he will veto the document. The administration of the new president has repeatedly spoken out against some initiatives of NASA, for example, demanded to curtail studies of climate change and the division of Earth Science. Fortunately, the bill does not say a word about financial support for such studies, so the space agency has a serious chance of success.
The article is based on materials .
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