spacetoday.net: Space agencies release revised exploration roadmap

Posted: Wed, Aug 21, 2013, 7:41 AM ET (1141 GMT)
NASA asteroid capture mission illustration (NASA)

A group of national space agencies released on Tuesday a revised long-term plan for human space exploration that makes uses of asteroids and the Moon to achieve the goal of sending humans to Mars. The Global Exploration Roadmap was prepared by the International Space Exploration Coordination Group, a group of 12 national space agencies that include NASA, ESA, and Roscosmos. The new roadmap replaced two options in the original version, which called for asteroids of the Moon as the next human spaceflight destination, with a single approach that includes both. The purpose of both asteroid and lunar missions would be to prepare agencies for eventual human missions to Mars some time in the 2030s. the released of the revised roadmap coincided with the formal introduction of NASA's newest astronaut class, who had been announced in June.