The administration of US President Donald Trump has ordered NASA to explore commercial alternatives for transporting humans to Mars and subsequently returning them to Earth, as part of a new national policy aimed at expanding US space transportation capabilities.
The measure is contained in a presidential memorandum on the National Space Transportation Policy, released this week by the White House, which replaces guidelines established by the Barack Obama Administration in 2013.
Commercial transport to and from the Moon, including sending humans to the Red Planet
The document instructs NASA to facilitate commercial transportation to and from the Moon, promote private robotic access to the surface of Mars, and explore commercial architectures for sending humans to the red planet and returning them to Earth.
However, the new policy does not set a date for a crewed mission to Mars. The immediate goal is to study and develop, through commercial solutions and partnerships with the private sector, the technologies and infrastructure necessary to make such operations possible.
More than a thousand releases and re-entries annually by 2030
Among the goals set by Washington is that by 2030 the US space infrastructure will have the capacity to support more than a thousand launches and re-entries annually, in addition to expanding access from Earth orbit to the Moon and regions of deep space.
The strategy represents a new impetus for the participation of private companies in US space activities, through commercial investments and public-private partnership schemes.
