Two administrations later, America’s space goal remains the same — first, return to the moon, then onto Mars, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said Monday during a news briefing at the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs.

The goal of eventually landing human astronauts on the surface of Mars was first proposed by President Barack Obama and retained and expanded by President Donald Trump. Nelson said NASA must first return to the moon, use minerals and water there to build structures and learn how to use it as a jumping-off point for a later Mars mission that would involve a months-long trip each way and exposure to higher levels of radiation.

“Space is hard — you always have to expect the unexpected,” said Nelson, who is one of only a handful of former Congressman who has traveled into space. “Going to the moon is a means to get to Mars. Using conventional propulsion systems would take 6-8 months and we don’t have the ability to sustain and equip human life for that long. That is why we are going back to the moon — to learn the systems and technology for long-duration in low-gravity and exposure to solar explosions and radiation.”

Nelson also noted the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope late this year will allow scientists to study light from the earliest origins of the universe, emitted more than 13 billion years ago. The telescope will allow scientists to explore new worlds, galaxies, suns and planets, and perhaps answer the oldest question for mankind — who are we and where did we come from? Which he called “the excitement of space exploration.”

The 78-year-old former U.S. Senator and Congressman, appointed as NASA Administrator in March by President Joe Biden, highlighted three Colorado small businesses during the briefing that have developed key technologies that will be used by the agency to return to the moon. BioServe Space Technologies, based on the University of Colorado Boulder campus, designs and builds life science research and hardware for experiments in space. Advanced Space is building a small satellite that will launch later this year to test space navigation in an elliptical lunar orbit. Lunar Outpost is building a lunar rover that will collect moon dust and other materials from the South Pole of the moon.

Colorado plays a major role in NASA’s Mars exploration program with companies based in the state receiving about 20% of the contracts the agency has awarded, or about $119 million, according to a state-by-state study completed last year. All three companies are examples of how NASA is using small businesses to develop the latest technology innovations needed to make the Mars flight possible.

BioServe is focusing on cancer research with the goal of enabling NASA to safely send astronauts into deep space, where they will be exposed to higher levels of radiation than they are in earth orbit. Conducting cancer research in space allows scientists to build better models of human cells and molecules and see chemical and biological processes better in zero-gravity than they can on earth, said Dr. Luis Zea, the company’s implementation project manager.

Advanced Space is building a 55-pound satellite to test a unique elliptical orbit that will later be used by the Lunar Gateway, a moon-orbiting outpost that is part of NASA’s Artemis program. The satellite is designed to show that two autonomous spacecraft can determine each other’s location without having to use earth ground stations and verify the flight path of the satellite’s halo-shaped orbit, said Bradley Cheetham, CEO of Advanced Space.

Lunar Outpost plans on using its autonomous lunar rover to collect lunar dust it will then sell to NASA for $1 as a test of how to create a legal framework for transfer of space resources that will eventually be used to build structures on the moon for a permanent base, said Justin Cyrus, the company’s CEO. Using resources from the moon for a future flight to Mars could cut the cost of the mission by an estimated $12 billion, he said.