The Obama administration should set a concrete schedule for human Mars missions, and make sure new hardware developed for NASA’s return to the Moon can be adapted for missions to other destinations, a new report says.
With a new US president set to take charge of the White House and many questions hanging over NASA’s future, many have been trying to advise the agency about where it should go from here.
President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team has been very tight-lipped, but if the Obama administration takes its cue from the preponderance of advice it’s getting, then human missions to Mars may well move up in priority.
Back in November, the Planetary Society, a space advocacy group, released a report called “Beyond the Moon”, which called for delaying new missions to the Moon and channelling more resources into paving the way for human missions to Mars instead.
Now, an independent group of space experts, led by David Mindell of MIT, is calling for a timeline for human Mars missions, and urging that any Moon hardware be designed with other destinations in mind as well.