Lunar Exploration Mission: NASA is taking US back to the moon for the first time in 50 years

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Last month, NASA released a video officially marking its intentions to get astronauts back to the Moon and to travel beyond, sending the first human-manned missions to Mars. The gears for a new Moon Mission have been turning since President Trump signed a Space-Policy Directive nearly a year ago. CGTN's John Zarella has the details.

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, landed on the moon fifty years ago next July.

Three years later in 1972, Apollo 17 left the lunar surface. Humans have not been back since.

Over the years U.S. presidents paid lip service to the notion of going back but there was never much money or will.

Then, a year ago, President Donald Trump made moon missions space policy.

DONALD TRUMP US PRESIDENT "This time we will not only plant our flag and leave our footprint, we will establish a foundation for an eventual mission to Mars."

The plan is ambitious. Jim Bridenstine who heads the U.S. Space Agency NASA, says this time it's far more than a quick round trip.

JIM BRIDENSTINE NASA ADMINISTRATOR "I don't like using the word that we're going back to the moon. We're not. We're doing it in a way that's never been done before."

The idea is to make landers, rovers, spacecraft all have access to the moon over and over.

NASA, its partner nations and commercial companies would create an architecture revolving around a central hub.

JIM BRIDENSTINE NASA ADMINISTRATOR "We need every part of the architecture between the Earth and the moon to be re-useable. We need the landers to be re-useable. We need the tugs that go from Earth orbit to lunar orbit to be re-useable. We need the gateway."

The gateway is the hub.

A relatively small station in orbit around the moon, it would serve to test new technologies, provide easier access to the moon for landers and humans.

First modules for the station are estimated to cost 2-point-7 billion dollars.

NASA's still under construction new massive rocket the SLS would bring the first piece, propulsion and power up in 2022.

The habitat module would go up in 2024.

In between, the SLS with the new Orion spacecraft would carry humans on a trial trip from the earth, around the moon and back.

JOHN ZARRELLA FLORIDA "So when would astronauts set foot back on the moon? NASA is vague. Sometime in the late 2020s or 2030. One former NASA administrator said such a date does not demonstrate the United States is a leader in anything."

Robert Zubrin, renowned aerospace engineer, author and advocate for Mars exploration is no fan of the Gateway program either.

ROBERT ZUBRIN FOUNDER, MARS SOCIETY "The human spaceflight program needs a goal. That goal should be humans to Mars. It should be humans to Mars because humans to Mars is where the science is, the challenge is, where the future is. It's where we can discover the truth about the potential prevalence and diversity of life in the universe. You can't do that on the moon and certainly not in lunar orbit."

NASA believes there's no better place than the moon to test the technologies needed for Mars missions.

So for now, the space agency's priority is getting astronauts back to the moon eventually. John Zarrella, CGTN, Cape Canaveral, Florida.