In the latest round of budget negotiations, NASA got a pretty good windfall. But hiding in that $19.3 billion budget it is a $55 million directive: begin building a deep space habitat, and have it ready to go by 2018. In 180 days, NASA will have to report on any progress.

It may be part of Congress pushing NASA to be more serious in its efforts toward a crewed Mars mission in the 2030s. That mission will require a lot of money and a lot of new technology, and a habitation module is just one piece of the puzzle. After all, if you're spending six months to get somewhere, you don't want a crew of astronauts crammed in the Orion module the entire time.

NASA already has a few contracts with firms like Orbital ATK and Bigelow to study possible configurations for a deep space habitat, but the budget directive puts more fire under the agency's feet to choose a design and accelerate development by around the time the Orion module is set for its first round of crewed testing.

From there, it's likely that the agency will spend the 2020s testing its module of choice in a high-Earth or lunar orbit, right as the ISS is set to be decommissioned in 2024. We'll know more what the module looks like in 180 days when NASA presents its progress report to Congress and gets the ball rolling on its return to deep space.

Source: SpaceNews

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io