NASA's chief Jim Bridenstine thinks "we
need to get to more parts of the moon than
we have ever gotten to ever before.
Speaking to Space.com recently,
Bridenstine detailed his priority for the
space agency, going forward.
Jim BridenstineWhen you look back at
history, look back at the end of the Apollo
program..there was a period of time there
after Apollo and before the space shuttles
when we had a gap of human spaceflight
capability. And then you go forward and
look at the retirement of the space shuttles
in 2011, and now we're getting to the point
where we're ready to fly commercial crew.
Weve got a gap of about eight years in our
ability to fly crew into space. When we think
about the lend of the International Space
Station, we want to make sure that a gap
doesnt materialise.
Bridenstine said he believed NASA's top
priority should be to ensure than another
such gap never occurred again, which is
why according to him it was important to
start the conversation now."We wants lots
of humans in space, he said.
Tothe Moon and Back
Bridenstine said NASA missed a crucial
opportunity to pursue the moon, an
opportunity highlighted in fact by Indians
He talked about how the US first landed on
the moon in 1969, but it was only 40 years
later, in 2009 that they discovered water ice
on its surface. That too, their experiment
followed India's experiment proving the
same in 2008
Jim Bridenstine to Space.comSo the
question is - during those 40 years, we
missed that. What e se have we missed?
He added that he planned to remedy this as
NASA's administrator "We need to get to
more parts of the moon than we have
gotten to ever before, he said before
adding that mastering the science of the
moon is the first step to reaching farther
out in the solar system
"l think a lot of people miss the fact that
the moon represents an amazing proving
ground for all of the technologies and the
human-performance capabilities that are
necessary to survive on another planet and
the ability to develop in-situ utilisation
abilities Bridenstine said
Building Gateways
To "open up the moon'- and other planets
Bridenstine said he wants to build
"Gateways" or small, space-station-like
platforms that serve as outposts for further
points.
Jim BridenstineThe first Gateway is going
to be in a near-rectilinear halo orbit. It is not
optimum for getting to the surface of the
moon, but it enables with a very low
propulsion capability..to stay in that orbit
for a very, very long period of time. And it
enables us, the [USA, to invest in critical
infrastructure from whence our commercial
partners can go back and forth from Earth
to lunar orbit, from which our commercial
partners can build their own landers to get
to the surface of the moon.