Remember the other day when we told you that NASA had six possible ideas for getting to Mars ? No ? Well , we did . Look , it’sright here .
Now , Boeing has follow forward with one of those musical theme , unveiling their Deep Space Gateway . This , they say , could act as a staging outpost around the Moon before going to Mars . In astatementyesterday , the company say this would be a habitat placed in cislunar space – the part between Earth and the Moon .
Powered by Solar Electric Propulsion ( SEP ) , or ion propulsion , " the habitat could put up critical research and aid open opportunities for globular politics or commercial partnerships in cryptic space , ” the affirmation reads .
The ultimate finish would be to use this space place as an outstation for missions to Mars . It could also host a new deep place transport fomite that NASA is work on , which would transport humans to the Red Planet .
Astronauts would move on this fomite to Mars , leaving behind the Deep Space Gateway , where they could control robots on the control surface from orbit or perhaps land there themselves . It ’s not clear how the first missions to Mars will bet out , but it ’s looking like they ’ll set out with orbital missions , before we come back and actually land on the surface .
Artist ’s feeling of a deep space transport fomite at Mars . Boeing
One company , Lockheed Martin , has already come forward with a proposal to build a space stationaround Mars , although it ’s not unclouded if this is part of NASA ’s design ( we ’ve take NASA for confirmation ) .
Sojourner Truth be told , it ’s not entirely clear what makes Boeing ’s lunar approximation especially unequalled , but it does clarify who on the button is work with NASA on build a gateway quad post to Mars around the Moon .
This seems to be NASA ’s main recollective - terminal figure finish at the moment . They ’re go to have about $ 3.5 billion extra to spend on human geographic expedition when theISS is retiredin 2024 or 2028 , so it ’s sound to have a architectural plan .
They ’ll also have their new heavy - lift rocket , the Space Launch System ( SLS ) , up and running by the spell of the 2020s . This will be used to found the components of any future blank station or a mission to Mars . The next step will presumably be to pick one of the plans to move onwards with .
