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NASA Releases Moon 2024 Mission Trailer

America is going back to the Moon, and this time it is going to stay. In 2024, NASA will launch a fresh batch of astronauts toward the Moon, as part of a program with more than its fair share of premieres. And now there’s a trailer to prove it.
NASA heading for the Moon in 2024 1 photo
Photo: NASA
Encouraged by the American administration’s new found love for space exploration and hyped by the amended budget for 2020, the space agency released last week a short, 3-minute video showing how it will all be made possible.

Using the Space Launch System rocket (SLS) and the Orion capsule, the astronauts will depart their home planet and head for the Moon, where they will land using an entirely new approach. For landing puroposes, NASA has enlisted the help of private contractors, who are to manufacture the lander on which Orion will rest once it reaches its destination.

Last week, NASA announced the 11 companies that are working on such landers, and they include SpaceX, Blue Origin, Aerojet Rocketdyne, Lockheed Martin and more.

Subsequent missions will make a step beyond what we currently perceive as a Moon landing, thanks to the deployment of the space station that will be built in orbit around the satellite: the Gateway.

The SLS-Orion combo will contribute to the build of the space station itself, as it will also be used as a delivery method for the components of the Gateway in cislunar orbit.

Gateway’s mission to assist lunar landings is just a stepping stone, as the platform will later be used to send machines and humans to even more distant destinations, including the holy grail of space exploration, Mars.

The Gateway will be comprised of at least a power and propulsion element, as well as habitation, logistics and airlock capabilities, allowing humans to stay in close proximity of the Moon for long periods of time.

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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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