nasa<u+2019>s gateway to deep space page: 1 www.abovetopsecret.com... now, it sems that nasa is making good on his promise and is moving forward with the plan by establishing a deep-space habitat near the moon to test out systems for people who would live in orbit or travel long distances in space; a gateway to deep space nasa plans to address its problem by parking a <u+201c>deep space<u+201d> habitat in a location near the moon, which astronauts could visit and use to become acclimated to life beyond low-earth orbit. president obama mentioned deep space habitats earlier this month, when he reiterated his call for nasa to send humans to mars. <u+201c>i'm excited to announce that we are working with our commercial partners to build new habitats that can sustain and transport astronauts on long-duration missions in deep space,<u+201d> obama said. this wasn<u+2019>t really a new announcement, as nasa has been working on the habitat program for a couple of years. nevertheless, before the president's mention, this nextstep program had received surprisingly little attention given its significance<u+2014>it might be the most important contract nasa awards for next decade. as obama said, nasa has embarked upon a "journey to mars." while the plan may change to include lunar landings as a stepping stone to mars, the space agency does intend to try and venture back into deep space for the first time since the apollo program. whatever destination it chooses, nasa's ambitions will begin with the deep space habitat, because it is an affordable first step, costing hundreds of millions or a few billion dollars initially, instead of multiple billions needed for a full-blown expedition to the moon's surface, mars or elsewhere in deep space. "this is the right next step," simon said. "we need to understand how to live in deep space, how to live off of our planet." the first habitat launched in the 2020s won<u+2019>t be exactly the same as the vehicle nasa eventually sends to mars. rather, it will serve as a prototype to help the space agency understand the capabilities, technologies, and systems needed for astronauts to survive for long periods in deep space. some of those systems can be tested on the ground or the existing space station, but others can only be tested further from earth. this venture is part of the next step program initiated by nasa: www.nasa.gov... nextstep is a public-private partnership model that seeks commercial development of deep space exploration capabilities to support more extensive human space flight missions in the proving ground around and beyond cislunar space<u+2014>the space near earth that extends just beyond the moon. so far, nasa has partnered with 6 companies in this effort: bigelow aerospace, boeing, lockheed martin, orbital atk, sierra nevada corporation, and nanoracks. this is great, ats! i am very excited at this news, even with all of the morbidity we have in the world today; i'm still excited for the future..! this is an ambitious plan..can us aerospace companies pull this off alone, or should this be more of a global effort? what does ats think?
nasa's gateway to deep space
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