This Week at NASA: The President Outlines Reiterates Human Mars Mission by 2030’s and More

An Oct. 11 opinion article written by President Barack Obama and published by CNN, outlined a vision for the future of space exploration.
In it, the president echoed the words in his 2015 State of the Union address about the importance of sending humans on a roundtrip mission to Mars by the 2030s, and developing technology to help us stay on the Red Planet for an extended time. That same day in a blog post, NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden and John Holdren, assistant to the President for Science and Technology, discussed two NASA initiatives that build on the president’s vision and use public-private partnerships to enable humans to live and work in space in a sustainable way. The first was the selection of six companies to develop habitation systems as part of the agency’s Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships or “NextSTEP” program, designed to lay the groundwork for deep space missions. And this fall as part of the second initiative, NASA will start the process of providing companies with a potential opportunity to add their own modules and other capabilities to the International Space Station. The move is in-line with NASA’s plan to support and foster the growing community of scientists and entrepreneurs conducting research and growing businesses in space. Also, White House Frontiers Conference, Kennedy Reopens After Hurricane Matthew, Orion Service Module Vibration Tests, SLS Liquid Hydrogen Fuel Tank Completed, and Aviation Safety Reporting System Turns 40.