The New Apollo

     President Donald Trump has announced that he would like to send men back to the moon, a feat which has not happened since December 11, 1972 with the Apollo 17 mission. His reasoning is to restore America’s legacy of leadership in space and to help National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) gain more information about our space and the solar system. Trump would like to eventually send a man to Mars, and he hopes to do this with his space policy directive, which he signed back in February of 2017. 
     NASA hopes to land astronauts at the moon’s South Pole and gather new information with their current equipment. Many members of the science community are behind Trump on this revival because they believe it will lead to new groundbreaking discoveries and gain further knowledge on lunar science. 
     With new technology, it is believed that missions to the moon will be both robotic and crewed, leading to more useful information to promote travel to Mars. Currently, NASA is creating robotic prospector missions that will help extract the oxygen and hydrogen needed to survive on the moon and launch expeditions to Mars further in the future. This process will reduce the need to get air from earth and will allow further space expeditions even more possible.
     Vice President Mike Pence hopes this feat will be accomplished by 2024. NASA believes this is very possible, and with the recent increase in government funding and technology being better now than ever before, the possibility is even greater. NASA’s biggest concern is the landing sequence, since it has to be designed, built, and tested before it can be sent to space. 
     Man should be sent back to the moon because of the possibilities that come along with 47 years of scientific and technological advancement. What NASA could learn by going back to the moon could be the key to having life on Mars. Without exploring the unknown, nothing new could be found to further the possibilities for the future. That is why modern space exploration in could ultimately be the answer to advancing human existence to the next level in the future and beyond.

Reporter: Myles Witte