President Donald Trump said Friday that NASA should look beyond the moon to Mars, after his strategy for exploring space came under criticism from an Apollo 11 astronaut.
Talking about NASA's 'Moon to Mars' mission that proposes to make the moon a lunar gateway to other planets and constellations, the president said the space agency should be thinking bigger.
'They should be focused on the much bigger things we are doing, including Mars (of which the Moon is a part),' he said.
President Donald Trump said Friday that NASA should look beyond the moon to Mars, after his strategy for exploring space came under criticism from an Apollo 11 astronaut
NASA doesn't currently have a deadline for the first manned flight to Mars – a planet that's 34 million miles away from earth and would take at least six months for ship to get to
Trump's tweet was widely mocked for claiming that the moon 'is a part' of Mars as he referred to the mission that proposes to use the rocky surface as a central outpost.
Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins had speculated before the tweet that Trump might not know that Mars is a planet.
Collins told CNN, 'I don't think he's too much aware of Mars. Maybe he doesn't understand that there is a planet Mars.'
Trump swatted back in the tweet that intended to put pressure on NASA to refocus its space program on going to Mars rather than its gateway program.
'For all of the money we are spending, NASA should NOT be talking about going to the Moon - We did that 50 years ago. They should be focused on the much bigger things we are doing, including Mars (of which the Moon is a part), Defense and Science!' the president said.
He did not mention Collins, but the retired astronaut's interview dropped earlier on Friday. The president was in the air on an hours-long flight back to Washington from one of his golf properties in Ireland.
He seemed to be receiving a briefing, or pursuing the news at the time of the message, that followed several others on tariffs, immigration and the House speaker.
Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins had speculated before the tweet that Trump might not know that Mars is a planet
Collins had compared Trump's strategy unfavorably to the president who put him on the moon in the first manned spacecraft in 1969.
'I'd prefer what I would call the John F. Kennedy express method,' Collins said. 'I think if we want to go to Mars, we should so declare and go -- the same way President Kennedy described the forthcoming lunar landing.'
NASA doesn't currently have a deadline for the first manned flight to Mars – a planet that's 34 million miles away from earth and would take at least six months for ship to get to.
The first flight to the moon as part of the scientific research that aims to establish sustainable living quarters on the moon's surface is scheduled for 2020. That flight will test NASA's system, and a crew will not be on board. A 2022 flight on the aircraft with crew will circle
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