After receiving a massive $1.3 billion increase in its allotted budget, NASA has confirmed plans for a crewed mission to Mars by the 2030s.
According to Huffington Post, Congress has announced that it will increase NASA’s spending in 2016, rendering it as high as $19.3 billion.
NASA has been directed by Congress to use $55 million of its newly increased budget to begin making arrangements for a manned Mars mission. This includes creating a deep space habitat that would house astronauts during missions.
Congress also gave NASA a deadline: by 2018, NASA is required to develop a workable prototype of their planned habitation module. The status of the mission must be updated and reported every 180 days as well.
The hope is that a crewed mission to Mars will be able to launch by the 2030s. Additionally, cislunar (between Earth and moon) testing of the habitat technology will begin in the 2020s.
Working with companies like Bigelow Aerospace, Boeing and Orbital ATK, NASA has already begun studying and planning habitat designs. The new funding is a bit of a shot in the arm for the program, though, given the strict deadlines that come along with it, it might also serve as a way of forcing NASA to speed up its development of these plans.
NASA’s habitation module has the potential to reinvent the way people think about space travel, though as of now it is still in its very early stages. Though the funding is there, it is still unclear what the module might require in terms of money and resources.
“It’s much to early for that,” said Sam Scimemi, International Space Station director at NASA Headquarters, in an interview with SpaceNews. “As soon as I put the picture up there, somebody is going to assume what the configuration is.”