Earlier this month, the US Congress announced it has raised the budget for NASA from 1,3 billion to 19,3 billion dollars 2016. The over-increased amount shows that the US has great plans for the red planet.
Today it became known that 55 million dollars of the total budget will be allocated to research creationof a deep space residence for astronauts on Mars, according to a SpaceNews publication.
The organization will have until 2018 to create a home-based bill according to a bill Congressional 2016 omnibus. NASA must also begin reporting to Congress on its progress on the project 180 days after the start of the work.
NASA is already working with Companies like the Boeing and Bigelow Aerospace for creating habitats in space, but with the new bill, and the extras money he could be forced to speed things up to comply with the wishes of Congress.
At the moment, you have to use your imagination to guess how homes will look like Mars, said NASA's Space Space Director at Space News, as it is too early to release any mock-ups.