(Ranjandeep sandhu, Amrik matharoo):- As part of a programme called Artemis, Nasa will send a men and a women to the lunar surface on moon in the first landing with humans since 1972. Astronauts will travel in an Apollo-like capsule called Orion that will launch on a powerful rocket called SLS.
Speaking on Monday afternoon (US time), Nasa administrator Jim Bridenstine said: “The $28bn represents the costs associated for the next four years in the Artemis programme to land on the Moon. The human landing system and of course the spacesuits are included.
The budget request that we have before the House and the Senate right now includes $3.2bn for 2021 for the human landing system.
At the time of this interview, there were 12 active woman astronauts. They have since been joined by five other female Nasa astronauts who graduated from training earlier this year. But it remains unclear whether any of the newest astronauts can fulfil the criteria in time to fly on the first landing mission in 2024
Nasa has provided $967 to the companies to work on designs for the landing vehicle that will take them there.
Later in the decade, the plan calls for Nasa to establish a base for humans, called Artemis Base Camp, that would include the infrastructure needed for long-term exploration of the Moon.
By comparison with Artemis, the Apollo programme in the 1960s and 70s cost upwards of $250bn in inflation-adjusted US dollars.
However, the $28bn for this new plan does not include money already spent developing the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System (SLS) rocket
