All this thanks to a raise in budget disposed by President Donald Trump.

Source: Nasa

“President Donald Trump asked NASA to accelerate our plans to return to the Moon and for humans to return to the surface by 2024. We will go with new technologies and innovative systems to explore more places on the surface than was ever believed. This time, when we go to the Moon, we will stay. And then we will use what we learn on the Moon to take the next big leap: send astronauts to Mars. “

— NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine 

Since Apollo 11 (1969) nobody has stepped on our natural satellite again. This time a more ambitious plan has been detailed. NASA has launched its From the Moon to Mars project in which it explains its objectives, its motives and motivations to fulfill these missions.

The mission, named Artemis because of the Greek goddess of the moon and twin sister of Apollo, aims to send a woman and a man to the lunar surface and stay longer than a few simple steps and a planted flag. This news comes months after a trip to space with a team of only women was suspended because there was no appropriate suit for one of them to complete the moonwalk.

“NASA’s budget for the fiscal year of 2019, which ends on September 30, is of $ 21.5 billion. In March, the president’s original budget request for the fiscal year of 2020 sought to cut spending by $ 500 million. Now he is trying to add $ 1.1 billion, a $ 1.6 billion spin. ”(The New York Times).

This “extra” money would be destined for the Space Launch System, a new rocket (built by Boeing) and the Orion capsule. It is also intended to develop a commercial landing system to reach the surface of the Moon. The current objective is to install more seismographs to understand more of what is happening on our Moon and to understand what problems these lunar earthquakes can bring.

Sources:

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/goddard/2019/moonquakes

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