• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Weatherboy

Weatherboy Weather News, Maps, RADAR, Satellite, and Forecasts.

  • Local
  • Earth Science News
  • RADAR
  • Current Warnings
  • Satellite
  • Current Maps
  • Forecast Maps
  • Video

US Returning Humans to Moon’s Surface

by Weatherboy Team Meteorologist - March 26, 2019

It's been nearly 47 years since Americans last walked on the Moon. The Trump Administration wants to change that, giving NASA orders to return to the Moon within the next 5 years.  Image: NASA
It’s been nearly 47 years since Americans last walked on the Moon. The Trump Administration wants to change that, giving NASA orders to return to the Moon within the next 5 years. Image: NASA





At a National Space Council meeting earlier today, Vice President Mike Pence  said it is the White House policy “to return American astronauts to the moon within the next five years.” Although he said the SLS rocket must be accelerated to do so, he urged NASA to reach the moon “by any means necessary.” “We’re not committed to any one contractor. If our current contractors can’t meet this objective, then we’ll find ones that will,” Pence said. “If American industry can provide critical commercial services without government development then we’ll buy them.” Pence’s comments come less than 2 weeks later after NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine testified in Washington of NASA’s commitment to send hardware to the Moon by next year. Putting astronauts back on the surface of the moon would be a monumental effort, especially if the White House wants to accomplish such in the next five years.




President Trump issued the Space Policy Directive 1 in December 2017, ordering NASA to return astronauts to the moon.  In today’s announcement, by using the phrase “by any means necessary”, Vice President Pence suggested using using rockets and landers built by private companies if NASA can’t do it alone. Non-government companies like United Launch Alliance, a Boeing-Lockheed Martin partnership, SpaceX, and Blue Origin are among the companies that could win contracts from NASA to get to the Moon by 2014.

“Let me be clear the first woman and the next man on the moon will both be American astronauts launched by American rockets from American soil,” Pence said. Other countries have announced ambitious plans to return humans to the Moon, including China which successfully landed a spacecraft and lunar rover on the Moon earlier this year.




President Trump reinstated the National Space Council in 2017; Vice President Pence serves as its chair. Today’s meeting marked the first of the council, which unites the interests of groups  working on commercial, scientific, and national security space operations from a policy perspective.

Returning to the moon will be a costly venture.  NASA requested $19.9 billion in funding for this year; Congress appropriated $21.5 billion. Bringing back Americans to the moon could cost more than $130 billion according to sources at NASA.

The National Space Council is recommending that American astronauts land on the South Pole of the Moon, where water in ice form is known to exist.  Vice President Pence said it’d be possible to use nuclear power to extract water from the Moon’s southern craters and mine oxygen from lunar rocks to refuel spacecraft.

Primary Sidebar

Sponsored Ad

Search

Latest News

  • NOAA Releases Hurricane Season Forecasts for Atlantic and Central Pacific Basins
  • Weak Morning Earthquake Rattles Maine
  • Nor’Easter Keeping Weather Cool and Damp in Northeast This Week
  • Miami’s National Hurricane Center Monitors Area for Cyclone Development
  • Scientists Unlock Climate Change Secrets: Say Ice Age Is Coming
  • Tornado Confirmed in New Jersey
  • National Hurricane Center Initiates Daily Reports Today
  • Severe Weather Likely Across Broad Area on Friday
About | Careers | Contact | Contests
Terms | Privacy | Ad Choices
Weatherboy is a (R) Registered Trademark of isarithm LLC, All Rights Reserved.
All content herein is Copyright by Isarithm LLC 1997-2022