Congress has go along a newNASA bill , which empower $ 19.5 billion of spending in the financial year 2017 . It includes things like man missions to Mars and a Europa mission .
According toSpaceNews , this is the first time in nearly six and a one-half years that Congress has passed a NASA authorization notice . It was approved in the House of Representatives on March 7 , with the same placard passing the Senate by unanimous consent on February 17 . Now , it only needs to be signed into law by President Trump .
Some of the highlights from the bill include support for NASA ’s journeying to Mars . It say that the agency should work out towards the “ long - term end of human commission near or on the control surface of Mars in the 2030s ” . This come to to the idea that early missions to Mars could ask put down on its moon Phobos , before eventually manoeuvre to its surface .
As part of this journey to Mars , NASA had design to move an asteroid into lunar orbit and have astronaut visit it on the upcoming Orion space vehicle as soon as 2020 , call the Asteroid Redirect Mission ( ARM ) . But this mission alreadylooks in jeopardydue to cost overproduction and delays , and Congress said “ the technical and scientific goals … have not been demonstrated ” .
They suggest looking at alternative missions alternatively and to possibly utilise lessons learned from ARM to facilitate on the mission to Mars . The NASA Administrator , whoever that may be when Trump makes his pick ( at the moment Robert Lightfoot is act Administrator ) , is also ask to resign an assessment of whether launching a manned mission to Mars in 2033 is “ in the strategic interests of the US ” .
Elsewhere , the banker’s bill say that robotic geographic expedition to Europa “ should be supported ” . NASA is already work on such a commission , call theEuropa Multiple Flyby Mission , which would fly past the lunar month tons of times in the 2020s to act upon out if it ’s habitable . There are also provisionary plans to place alander on Europa , although this is not note specifically in the banker’s bill .
Congress also directs NASA to continue fund key task like Orion , the Space Launch System ( SLS ) arugula , and the Commercial Crew Program ( which fund SpaceX , Boeing , and other companies ) .
One famed absence seizure from the bill is any mention of Earth science ( present inprevious empowerment bills ) , which Trump infamously said he require to strip from NASA . This does n’t imply it ’s being argufy , merely that Congress want the bill to pass , and there wasmixed supportfor include it . Whether this will mean it ’s more likely the bill will be signed into law by Trump or not persist to be seen .
