Senior NASA Official Fears Getting “Stuck” on the Moon

The ultimate goal of the space agency is still going to Mars, according to the associate administrator, Bob Cabana.

When asked what NASA's definition of a sustainable presence on the Moon is, Cabana said that it wasn't necessarily about staying there with a specific group of people.

He said that they don't want to get stuck on the Moon and that they want to learn what they need to know.

NASA is still very much committed to its goal of taking the first humans to the Red Planet, which is a core part of the agency's Exploration Campaign.

NASA's senior leadership sees the Moon as a stepping stone.

Ars Technica senior space reporter Eric Berger said that the administration's posture toward sustained lunar operations had been fuzzy.

NASA is still focused on laying the groundwork for commercial efforts on the lunar surface.

A big part of the plan is to have a human landing system on the Moon.

NASA and its commercial partners will be able to reliably reach the lunar surface with the planned lunar gateway.

The agency has its eyes on Mars once lunar operations are established. The hope is that it will be able to learn enough about sustaining human life in space to do so.

Amazon's hit sci-fi TV show The Expanse is similar to the view of what humanity could look like once we have established a human presence across the solar system.

He said the show paints an exciting picture of what the future of deep space exploration and settlement will look like in places like the asteroid belt and Jupiter.

There is so much cool stuff going on, he said, referring to NASA's greater efforts to explore the universe.

NASA's tests of its mega moon rocket aren't going well.