To Mars, What Our Journey To the Red Planet Might Look Like.

At 12:50 PM EDT, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, bringing to an end the most ambitious space mission to date. But a question still remains 50 years later—what comes next?
It's the year 2037. A spaceship carrying American astronauts has just embarked on an historic missions to Mars.
Rocket liftoff was perfect and everything is going according to plan. Now the spacecraft nears the moon and prepares to dock at a fuel depot in high lunar orbit. At this space-based truck stop, it tops off its tanks with propellant manufactured from a factory on the lunar surface, and heavy with fuel, takes off again for the long journey to its final destination. Do you believe this scenario? NASA does. And the agency is already engaged in the most audacious project in its history. The goal: turn ambitions of moon-made rocket fuel and a mission to Mars into reality.
NASA’s Gateway program is the first stepping-stone on a journey that uses the moon to connect humanity to Mars. The new Gateway spacecraft will be a workstation in elliptical orbit around the moon, a remote office that astronauts will access by commuting to and from the moon’s surface. Gateway’s immediate purpose will be to support lunar exploration. But as it grows into a refueling depot and servicing platform, it will become the jumping off point for flights to Mars.
“What Gateway means for us as a society …it expands our concept of home to the lunar vicinity,” says Sean Fuller, NASA’s Director of Human Space Flight Programs and International Partner Manager for the project.
Previously called Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway and then Deep Space Gateway in 2017, the program was originally conceived to aid missions to Mars in the wake of the 2010 cancellation of NASA’s Constellation program, which called for a manned return to the moon by 2020. Rebranded simply Gateway, it is now the hub around which all of NASA’s major plans for human space exploration revolve.
Anyone with an interest in space likely wants to go to Mars. NASA’s current plans for achieving the dream have drawn fierce criticism as a distraction from the ultimate goal. That’s to be expected. But given that the stakes are higher and the competition greater than ever before, it’s critical we understand our national space mission. And get it right.