The major cuts to the NASA budget in the latest Trump NASA budget proposal would be devastating for the civilian space corporation, which has been largely sidelined with the Administration’s enthusiasm for the new Space Force which budget far outweighs NASA’s even in its better days. The cuts have been defended by claiming that the main task of NASA now is beating China—and Russia—to the Moon and Mars. Everything related to that, and particularly the NASA science budget is getting the ax, with NASA science programs being cut by almost 50%. NASA has suffered 24% cuts overall, and is looking at a work force reduced by one-third. See EIR for details.
Much of this is motivated by the foolish attempt to have a human mission to Mars as quickly and cheaply as possible in order to beat the competition. This was Musk’s idea, and in spite of the fact that he and his chosen candidate for NASA Administrator, Jared Isaacman, are no longer in the running, the “Mars or bust” strategy still seems to be that of the Trump Administration. It is unlikely to unfold given the difficult conditions and the careful preparation that such a mission would require, unless it be a suicide mission.
