With $ 19.5 billion of pumping, many of NASA's missions soon became a reality

The US Congress has just passed a new NASA bill, which proposed a budget of $ 19.5 billion for 2017. This includes manned missions to Mars and a probe mission. to Europa.

This is the first time in nearly six and a half years, Congress has agreed to pass a NASA bill.

This bill was approved by the House of Representatives on March 7, the same law passed by the Senate on February 17 before. Now, everything remains only the signature of President Donald Trump.

Some of the highlights of this bill are the journey to Mars. NASA set a long-term goal for missions to bring people closer to Mars or set foot on the planet's surface in the 2030s. Maybe the first mission will set foot on Mars's Phobos satellite.

A museum of NASA at the Kennedy Space Center in Orlando, Florida.(Photo: Shutterstock).

Along with the great expedition to Mars, NASA planned to bring an asteroid into orbit of the Moon and bring astronauts up there with the Orion spacecraft , as early as 2020. However, it is expected. This project is in danger of being canceled due to excessive costs, the National Assembly said the scientific and technological objectives of this mission are not satisfactory.

The National Assembly said, should find a replacement mission, to be able to learn more experience, prepare for the flight to Mars. No matter who becomes the director of NASA during President Trump, he will also prioritize the manned mission to Mars, as this is one of the top US strategies.

In addition, the bill offers an unmanned mission, bringing robots to explore Jupiter's moon Europa . NASA has planned for this mission in advance, that there will be a dozen flying ships around the satellite in the 2020s to study whether the satellite is a habitable place.

In addition, they drew the idea of ​​building a landing on Europa, although this was not stated in the bill.

Congress also directed NASA to continue to maintain important missions such as Orion, the SLS powerful rocket launcher system, the Trade Crew Program (raised by SpaceX, Boeing and private companies. other).

The absence of references to Earth science (the previous years' bills are mentioned) is particularly noticeable, after Trump announced that he would split from NASA. This does not mean that the agency will be abandoned, but perhaps it will be funded simultaneously between the state and the private.