The United States will definitely send Americans back to the Moon and will land a multinational team of astronauts on Mars ahead of any other country by the 2030s at the earliest. But, more important, it will also start doing business in space and is encouraging the U.S. private sector to lead the way.
NASA recently unveiled its new and truly ambitious "National Space Exploration Campaign" that describes the steps NASA plans to take to lead an innovative and sustainable program of exploration with commercial and international partners that will enable human expansion across the Solar System. This campaign will bring back to Earth new knowledge and opportunities.
Key scientific results of the campaign will be to return American astronauts to the Moon by 2028 and land them on Mars by 2038, the earliest date possible. SpaceX, however, intends to land its own people on Mars by 2035.
The 21-page plan finally admits humans won't be conquering space all by themselves. Humans will work with robots (humanoid and otherwise) to explore our Solar System. It calls for human and robotic exploration missions to expand the frontiers of human experience and scientific discovery of the natural phenomena of Earth, other worlds and the cosmos.
NASA said its Exploration Campaign has five strategic goals:
* Lay the groundwork for U.S. business and commercial operations in space that support NASA and the needs of an emerging private sector market. Space mining or asteroid mining will be the gold mine U.S. entrepreneurs will set their sights on.
* Lead the emplacement of capabilities that support lunar surface operations and facilitate missions beyond cislunar space (or the space between the Moon and the Earth).
* Foster scientific discovery and exploration of lunar resources through a series of robotic missions. Lunar mining of valuable commodities such as Helium-3 (the most important commodity on the Moon) and water-ice will be the prize.
* Return U.S. astronauts to the Moon for a sustained campaign of exploration and use. NASA also intends to build Moon bases as waypoints for voyages to Mars.
* Demonstrate the capabilities required for human missions to Mars and other destinations such as the Jovian and Neptunian moons.
Commercializing space will mean that NASA will have to expand public-private partnerships to develop and demonstrate technologies and capabilities to enable new commercial space products and services, especially those capable of asteroid mining.
The International Space Station (ISS) can help enable the transition to commercial activities in low-Earth orbit (LEO). NASA recently awarded 12 contracts to business firms to investigate the best way space stations can be used in space business ventures and to take a lead role in LEO businesses.
