As space race is slowly getting heated up between world powers, NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine has confirmed that the United States will send astronauts to Mars by 2023.
The United States space agency believe that the landing of astronauts on the moon by 2024 will help them to achieve the ultimate goal of Mars colonization.
NASA is also planning to open a completely operational Lunar Gateway that will orbit the moon by 2020. Earlier, NASA had planned to land astronauts on the moon by 2028, but upon instructions from the Trump administration, the space agency had decided to land humans on the lunar surface by 2024.
Recently, Jim Bridenstine had revealed that landing on the moon will be the first step to achieve Mars colonization.
“We can move up the Mars landing by moving up the moon landing to 2024. We need to learn how to live and work in another world. The moon is the best place to prove those capabilities and technologies. The sooner we can achieve that objective, the sooner we can move on to Mars,” said Bridenstine, Space.com reports.
This is not the first time that a top expert is talking about the vitality of landing on the moon for Mars colonization. South African billionaire Elon Musk who is the founder of SpaceX recently revealed that he wishes to build a permanent base on the moon. Elon Musk also agreed that building a human base on earth’s natural satellite is very pivotal to accelerate our dreams to live on Mars in the future.
While talking with Axios on HBO, Musk had also claimed that he will visit Mars at any cost despite chances of death from the Red Planet. He had also revealed that humans will form a democratic government on Mars after the colonization.