Now NASA has chosen six companies to work on space habitats that will move us towards Mars. The six companies are:
- Bigelow Aerospace of Las Vegas
- Boeing of Pasadena, Texax
- Lockheed Martin of Denver
- Orbital ATK of Dulles, Virginia
- Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Space Systems of Louisville, Colorado
- NanoRacks of Webster, Texas
Jason Crusan, director of NASA’s Advanced Exploration Systems, stated:
The next human exploration capabilities needed beyond the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion capsule are deep space, long duration habitation and in-space propulsion. We are now adding focus and specifics on the deep space habitats where humans will live and work independently for months or years at a time, without cargo supply deliveries from Earth.All of this is part of NASA's Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships-2 program. About $65 million is expected to be expended as part of this 2 year project.
This is progress, whether we are talking the Moon or Mars. Clear steps towards such missions will excite the public, engage the private sectors, and hopefully wake up our leaders to the potential of space exploration.
Image: Carl Sagan with a model of Viking 1. No, Sagan did not make it to the surface of Mars, though You can see Dr. Sagan's speech on Mars shortly after the Viking landing here.
