US Government Wants NASA To Advance Toward Human Missions To Mars In The 2030s

The U.S. government wants NASA to get humanity to planet Mars by 2030s. The Congress has just passed the authorization bill referred to as the NASA Authorization Act of 2017, which sanctioned the space agency for a $19.5 billion spending.

The 2017 Act put emphasis for the space agency to get humans on the surface of Mars in 2030s. This is more likely to be approved into law by the presidency because probably there will be no opposition to the bill from the administration. The bill also provides NASA to create a long-term medical monitoring of the past astronauts. It also includes policy provisions guiding the undertakings of NASA, according to Space News.

The Congress stated that this goal needs "early strategic planning and timely decision." It asked NASA to create an initial human exploration roadmap that the space agency needs to submit before Dec. 1, 2017, according to Futurism.

The bill expounding about the roadmap stated that it is the sense of the Congress that expanding human presence beyond low-Earth orbit and advancing toward human missions to Mars in the 2030s needs early strategic planning and timely decisions to materialize in the near-term on the essential plans of action for commitments to attain short-term and long-term goals and objectives. The Congress also asserts that Mars is suitable for human space flight program. It is also eyeing the Moon that would likely be a stopover in 2020 if the plans will pursue.

Meanwhile, Mary Lynne Dittmar, the executive director of the Coalition for Deep Space Exploration, said that the approval of the NASA Transition Authorization Act by Congress sends an explicit message to the American people and the international partners that the nation remains committed to NASA's space exploration program. She further said that this new authorization will impart the framework for unrelenting advancement towards these national commitments.