NASA-Funded Study Reduces Cost of Human Missions to Moon and Mars by Factor of Ten
The National Space Society (NSS) and Space Frontier Foundation (SFF) today announced their support for NASA’s funding of the newly released NexGen Space study, illustrating how to cut the cost of human space exploration by a factor of 10. The study, “Economic Assessment and Systems Analysis of an Evolvable Lunar Architecture that Leverages Commercial Space Capabilities and Public – Private – Partnerships,” finds public-private partnerships are able to return humans to the Moon for approximately 90% less than the previously estimated $100 billion, allowing the United States to ensure national security in a new space age.
“The Space Frontier Foundation supports and recommends public-private partnerships in all proposed human spaceflight programs in order to reduce costs and enable these missions that were previously unaffordable,” said the Space Frontier Foundation’s Chairman of the Board, Jeff Feige. “This is the way that America will settle the final frontier, save taxpayers money and usher in a new era of economic growth and STEM innovation.”
NSS and SFF call attention to these conclusions from the study:
– Enabled by public-private partnerships, NASA’s current human spaceflight budget is sufficient to return humans to the surface of the Moon and develop a permanent lunar base.
– Mining fuel from lunar poles and transporting it to lunar orbit for use by other spacecraft reduces the cost of sending humans to Mars and other locations beyond low Earth orbit. These commercial fuel depots in lunar orbit have the potential to cut the cost of sending humans to Mars by more than $10 billion per year.
“NSS congratulates NASA for funding the team at NexGen that discovered how such cost reductions are possible,” said NSS Executive Committee Chair, Mark Hopkins. “A factor of ten reduction in cost changes everything.”
NSS and SFF add that any space programs able to establish viable commercial partnerships can potentially achieve similar cost reductions.
About the National Space Society: An independent, member-supported 501(c)3 non-profit organization, the National Space Society seeks to accelerate humankind’s pursuits beyond Earth through youth education, public outreach, policy advocacy, and thought leadership. With over fifty chapters around the world, NSS advocates for global citizens’ interests in space development, and publishes the award-winning Ad Astra magazine. www.nss.org
About the Space Frontier Foundation: The Space Frontier Foundation is an organization of people dedicated to opening the Space Frontier to human settlement as rapidly as possible. The SFF mission is to protect the Earth’s fragile biosphere and create a freer and more prosperous life for each generation by using the!energy and material resources of space. SFF looks to unleash the power of free!enterprise and lead a united humanity permanently into the Solar System. To learn more visit www.spacefrontier.org.
Contacts:
National Space Society
Fred Becker
(321) 271-9064
Media2015@nss.org
Space Frontier Foundation
Alexandra Abrams
(925) 918-0081
alexandra.abrams@spacefrontier.org
