Strong budget support for our Moon to Mars effort …
A new crew launches to the space station …
And training for Orion recovery … a few of the stories to tell you about – This
Week at NASA!
During our March 11 Moon to Mars event at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, our administrator,
Jim Bridenstine discussed the President’s $21 billion budget request for NASA.
He called it a show of support for the agency and our wide-ranging objectives – including
our push to develop a sustainable human presence on and around the Moon, to facilitate lunar
exploration.
“In order to achieve that objective, we need a permanent command and service module,
in orbit around the Moon – we call it Gateway.
It represents an opportunity to get to more parts of the Moon than ever before.”
Our plan to go forward to the Moon calls for the use of innovative and new technologies
to develop systems, utilize untapped resources, and eventually make use of what we learn to
help astronauts take the next giant leap.
“What we’re trying to do is make sure that what we develop is not a dead end and
in fact has capabilities of being utilized on another world – that other world, of
course being Mars.”
The administrator also noted strong support in the budget for our efforts in low-Earth
orbit with our commercial and international partners, our work to resume launches of American
astronauts on American rockets from American soil, and our progress developing the Space
Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft.
Closer to home, our cutting edge research to make air travel safer, quieter, and more
accessible is also acknowledged in the budget.
“Driving down costs and increasing access to air travel is the way that we’re going
to be able to increase the standard of living for every American, and that’s really what
NASA is all about.”
As are our space-based observations of Earth – which are crucial to understanding changes
to our home planet now, and forecasting potential changes that might occur in the future.
“We are studying the Earth with as strong a budget as we have seen, really in a very
long time, right now – and this budget request for Earth Science is very strong as well.
(applause)”
NASA has selected nine teams to continue the science legacy of the Apollo missions by studying
selected returned samples of the Moon from Apollo 15, 16, and 17.
The samples, which have been carefully stored and untouched for nearly 50 years, were deliberately
saved to take advantage of today’s more advanced and sophisticated technology – which
could help advance our understanding of our nearest neighbor.
On March 14, our Nick Hague and Christina Koch – along with Russia’s Alexey Ovchinin
– launched to the International Space Station from Kazakhstan.
The trio’s arrival will return the orbiting laboratory’s population to six, including
three NASA astronauts.
Hague, Koch, and Ovchinin will serve as the station’s Expedition 59/60 crew, and will
continue work on hundreds of experiments in biology, biotechnology, physical science and
Earth science being conducted aboard the orbital laboratory.
We partnered with the U.S. Coast Guard off the coast of North Carolina, to conduct testing
with our Orion spacecraft’s Crew Module Uprighting System.
The system of five airbags is responsible for turning Orion right side up if the capsule
turns over when it returns to Earth.
Orion and our Space Launch System are critical backbone elements of our future in deep space
– and will send our astronauts on missions to the Moon and beyond.
This 360-degree panorama was compiled from multiple images taken over 29 days last spring
by our Mars Opportunity Rover, from what would be its final resting spot in Perseverance
Valley.
After eight months of effort and sending more than a thousand commands in an attempt to
restore contact with the rover, NASA declared Opportunity's mission complete on Feb. 13,
2019 – after nearly 15 years of exploring the surface of Mars.
That’s what’s up this week @NASA …
For more on these and other stories follow us on the web at nasa.gov/twan