FROM MOON TO MARS
IT’S THE YEAR 2037. A SPACESHIP CARRYING AMERICAN ASTRONAUTS HAS JUST EMBARKED ON A HISTORIC MISSION TO MARS.
Rocket lift-off was perfect and everything is going according to plan. Now the spacecraft nears the Moon and prepares to dock at a fuel depot in high lunar orbit. At this space-based truck stop, it tops off its tanks with propellant manufactured at a factory on the lunar surface, and heavy with fuel, takes off again for the long journey to its final destination many millions of kilometres away.
Do you believe this scenario? NASA does. And the agency is already engaged in the most audacious project in its history. The goal: turn ambitions of Moon-made rocket fuel and a mission to Mars into reality.
NASA’s Gateway programme is the first stepping stone on a journey that uses the Moon to connect humanity to Mars. The new Gateway spacecraft will be a workstation in elliptical orbit around the Moon, a remote office that astronauts
