A new report from the National Research Council declares that the expenses and risks associated with human spaceflight can be justified only by the goal of putting humans on other worlds, with the “horizon goal” of getting to Mars.
That goal is consistent with NASA’s long-term vision for space exploration — but the report, titled “Pathways to Exploration: Rationales and Approaches to a U.S. Program of Human Exploration,” goes farther by noting that NASA’s current budget is too meager to reach the goal, and that it’s “in the best interests of the United States” to let China participate in future space partnerships.
NASA’s budget has been trimmed back in recent years, and there’s currently a ban on U.S.-Chinese space cooperation.