Scott Pace, executive secretary of the National Space Council, has said the Trump administration and NASA need to focus on long-term efforts to send humans to Mars, Space News reported Saturday.
The council has already called on Congress to invest in more resources for the planned 2024 moon landing in order to establish a sustainable lunar presence and enable Mars missions to begin in “roughly a decadeâ€, Pace told attendees at the International Space Development Conference in Arlington, Va. Pace’s comments come after President Trump expressed his criticism of NASA’s moon landing plans in a tweet dated June 7.
“What he’s doing is stepping back and expressing, I think, a very understandable impatience with how long all of that takes, and sometimes we miss the bigger picture,†Pace said about the tweet.
Congress is seeking long-term cost estimates for the 2024 moon mission, but such projections are facing challenges due to technical limitations in projects like the lunar gateway, he added.
