US President Donald Trump is on a mission to ‘Make America Great Again’. This time, Trump has directed NASA to send Americans to the moon for the first time since 1972, in order to prepare them for the trip to Mars.

"This time we will not only plant our flag and leave our footprint," Trump said at a White House ceremony as he signed the new space policy directive. "We will establish a foundation for an eventual mission to Mars and perhaps someday to many worlds beyond."

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Space policy experts agree that any attempt to send people to Mars, which lies an average of 225 million kilometers from Earth, would require immense technical prowess and a massive wallet.

The last time US astronauts visited the Moon was during the Apollo missions of the 1960s and 1970s.

AFP

On July 20, 1969, US astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the Moon.

Trump, who signed the directive in the presence of Harrison Schmitt, one of the last Americans to walk on the Moon 45 years ago, said "today, we pledge that he will not be the last."