NASA Administrator Insists Getting Humans To The Moon Again Is Imperative And Won’t Be Expensive To Achieve

NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine has recently called for further exploration of the moon and has insisted that getting humans back to the moon again needn’t be too expensive for the space agency and certainly won’t call for a major boost in NASA’s budget, especially of the Apollo variety.

According to Space, during the 1960s when the Apollo program was in full swing, NASA needed to use 4.5 percent of the federal budget to make their work successful. While NASA are currently granted just 0.5 percent of the federal budget, this shouldn’t be a problem if astronauts are to embark on lunar missions over the next decade.

As Donald Trump would also like to see humans on the moon again and created the Space Policy Directive 1 to make this happen, it is Bridenstine’s belief that the trick to heading back to the moon with NASA’s current budget is to collaborate with other agencies. After all, many countries may not have their own space agencies, but are very much interested in working with NASA to get to the moon.

“We now have more space agencies on the surface of the planet than we’ve ever had before. And even countries that don’t have a space agency — they have space activities, and they want to partner with us on our return to the moon.”

Going back to the Moon won't break the bank, NASA chief says https://t.co/FS4tRAaG2d

— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 3, 2018

Jim Bridenstine also noted that the United States is in a very good place right now when it comes to partnerships and that fulfilling Space Policy Directive 1 and getting astronauts to the moon is a wholly feasible endeavor at the moment.

“And, at the same time, we have a robust commercial marketplace of people that can provide us access that historically didn’t exist. So, between our international and commercial partners and our increased budget, I think we’re going to be in good shape to accomplish the objectives of Space Policy Directive 1. We want to have strong partnerships, not just commercially but internationally, so that we can do more than we’ve ever done before and build this sustainable architecture that is our direction under Space Policy Directive 1.”

As the Inquisitr recently reported, when we do go back to the moon, astronauts will not be engaging in the same flags-and-footprints mission of the Apollo program. Instead, we will have a much more permanent presence there.

This could include mining water ice that is found in great abundance around the moon’s lunar poles, which could eventually be turned into propellant for rocket fuel for spaceships heading elsewhere like Mars.

With NASA fully supporting the idea of private landers on the moon and Jim Bridenstine’s recent assertion that sending humans to the moon once again wouldn’t be cost prohibitive, the future of space exploration has just become even more exciting.