Washington: As the first director of NASA's newly established Moon to Mars Programme, Amit Kshatriya, an Indian-American software and robotics engineer, will assist the space agency in ensuring a long-term lunar presence necessary to get ready for humanity's next great leap to the Red Planet. The agency declared that Kshatriya will take over as the first head of the office as of right away. According to a NASA press release, the new office seeks to carry out the organization's human exploration efforts on the Moon and Mars for the sake of humanity.
“The golden age of exploration is happening right now, and this new office will help ensure that Nasa successfully establishes a long-term lunar presence needed to prepare for humanity’s next giant leap to the Red Planet,” said Nasa administrator Bill Nelson. “The Moon to Mars Programme Office will help prepare Nasa to carry out our bold missions to the Moon and land the first humans on Mars,” Nelson explained. The new office resides within the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, reporting to its associate administrator Jim Free, it said.
Kshatriya's new position entails designing and carrying out the programme for manned expeditions to the Moon and Mars.