Trump Authorizes NASA Funding For Mars Mission 2030; Human On Mars Mission Starts
President Donald Trump signed the NASA funding bill that aims to launch humans to Mars by 2030. With the bill, the Space Agency will receive a total funding of $19.5 billion for fiscal year 2017 to initiate the mission. It is reported that the administration showed the aggressiveness on the proposed Mars mission and it wants to ensure that there should have consistent progress in the coming years.
Trump signed the bill at his Oval Office in the presence of Mike Pence, the Vice President along with NASA astronauts Chris Cassidy and Tracy Caldwell Dyson. "For more than six decades the work of NASA has inspired millions of Americans to dream about the distant worlds and promising future in our planet, I am extremely happy to sign the bill," Trump said while signing the bill. "It took quite long to sign a bill like this which reassures our commitment to human space exploration and the core mission of NASA."
"With the bill, the people of America and the government support the scientists, astronauts, and engineers of NASA to continue their efforts to discover. This also supports jobs and create a situation of ongoing medical monitoring for our astronauts and timely treatment to ensure their service," Trump further added. The legislation offers lifetime healthcare for the retired astronauts as well. The bill specifically mentioned 2033 as the target year for Red Planet mission.
The legislation also confirms the collaboration with other space companies such as Elon Musk's SpaceX and Blue Origin of Jeff Bezos by awarding contracts. Interestingly, Musk has already spoken about the aggressive plans of SpaceX to colonize Mars by the next decade. As expected, the bill did not make any reference to theearth science efforts of NASA. Recently, Trump directed the agency to focus on space exploration than on Earth.
