Free Astronomy Magazine November-December 2017

42 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2017 ASTRONAUTICS we must go back almost three years, spe- cifically to March 2015, when the Russian space agency Roscosmos announced that it would cooperate with NASA in building a new space station near the Earth to replace the International Space Station, which will not be funded beyond 2024 unless plans are revised. A lot has changed since that promis- ing statement: some geopolitical situations have chilled US-Russian relations, and a new US president was elected who, freshly in- stalled in office on 20 January, appointed a new NASA administrator. As strange as it may seem, NASA’s priorities, rather than being tied to the invariable, vital and un- questionable importance of meeting certain space goals, change with the presidents and the administrations they appoint. During the years of the younger Bush, for example, the priority was to set foot again on the sur- face of the Moon by 2020; with Obama, the O n this page and the next, portrayals of the Deep Space Gate- way space station and the Deep Space Transport Vehicle in opera- tion near the Moon. [Boeing, NASA] H ow many times have we heard, even from authoritative sources, that hu- man missions to Mars were and are imminent? Too many, no doubt, and every time our hopes have been in vain. Until re- cently, 2020 (or even 2018) was thought to be the year to conquer the red planet, but it has become clear that this will not hap- pen, so the departure date for Mars will be delayed even more. Indeed, as far as NASA is concerned, that date has already been moved to somewhere between 2030 and 2040 because of the US space agency’s new strategy: first build a space station near the Moon, and then go to Mars. It is difficult not to feel perplexed by such an idea, since for years everything needed to launch a mission to the red planet from Earth’s orbit has been in existence. Why go near the Moon to duplicate all the experiments already done in Earth’s orbit? To understand this,