Humans will probably send a manned mission to Mars in the coming decades or so. What is known so far is that the journey will be made aboard the Orion spacecraft, but there is still no certainty whether the astronauts are going to survive the mission or how some form of settlement could be set up once the destination is reached. In order to address these concerns, the U.S. Congress has allocated funds for NASA in the recent omnibus spending bill.
The budget, which is worth at least $55 million, is part of the report attached to the Congressional bill approved this month. It purportedly directs the U.S. space agency to begin addressing the challenge by developing a habitation module for deep space exploration, according to Space News. The fund is part of the bigger $350 million budget to be allocated for the Advanced Exploration Systems program under the Exploration Research and Development line item in the budget.
"NASA shall develop a prototype deep space habitation module within the advanced exploration systems program no later than 2018," the report states. This is a welcome development, especially if the Mars expedition will be undertaken sometime in the 2030s. It will enable NASA to test the new space habitat in the moon by the year 2020 so that it will be ready a decade later.
The size of the Orion capsule is reportedly as long as a pickup truck. The space habitat, which will have living quarters and exercise equipments, could be linked to the spacecraft to give astronauts room during the six-month journey to the Red Planet, Popular Science noted.
There is still zero information as to how the space habitat will look like. While NASA has yet to announce any concept, one possible contender is the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) developed by Bigelow Aerospace, The Examiner reported.
