Last month the US Congress authorised a bill requiring NASA to spend fifty five million dollars of the $350 million in the Advanced Exploration Systems program budget, ensuring that the agency remains focused on practical steps towards deep space exploration. The module would be used to bring people to places like Mars and other destinations further away from earth.
NASA's ISS director Sam Scimemi envisions the habitation module will be tested out in the late 202s around the moon as a precursor to a full scale Mars mission. NASA is working with numerous other companies, including Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Orbital ATK, to study the technologies needed for long term living in deep space.
While it is unusual for Congress to take such a direct step in giving specific instructions as to how funding is to be spent, it should help to accelerate NASA's steps in this direction. The eventual construction of the module may be outsourced to contractors but Mr Scimemi says he would like NASA to look after it internally.
image credit NASA