In one of his first major speeches as the new Administrator of NASA, former Oklahoma congressman Jim Bridenstine laid out plans for the US to return to the moon and to work on putting a man on Mars.
Speaking recently at an industry day at agency headquarters in Washington, D.C., Bridenstine was enthusiastic about further space exploration.
“If some of you are concerned that the coming focus is the moon, don’t be,” he advised those on hand. “We’re doing both the moon and Mars in tandem and the missions are supportive of each other.”
He went on to claim that the return to the surface of the moon “will allow us to prove and advance technologies that will feed forward to Mars.”
He compared the return to the Moon and exploration to Mars to the 1803 Lewis and Clark expedition of the Louisiana Purchase territory, noting it wasn’t until the 1860s that the U.S. finally built a transcontinental railroad.
Bridenstine said like the Lewis and Clark expedition, the U.S. has yet to develop space exploration years after putting Neil Armstrong and buzz Aldrin on the moon.
He said 49 years after the moon landing, it’s time for the U.S. to build its own railroad in space.