The budding bromance between SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and president-elect Donald Trump may have large implications for the US’ house program — assuming the volatile pair don’t flame out, as each have repeatedly completed with different allies.
That is very true when factoring in NASA’s present technique of counting on the personal house {industry} for initiatives starting from attending to the surface of the Moon to building a space station in Earth’s orbit.
As Durham College astropolitics affiliate professor Bleddyn Bowen argues in an essay for The Conversation, the bizarre pair-up between the brand new president and the richest man on the planet may see the US doubling down on its present personal industry-led house coverage, whereas probably supercharging an rising arms race within the Earth’s orbit.
In some methods, the Trump administration may merely proceed the place it left off 4 years in the past, with an emphasis on the Artemis Moon touchdown program, which has continued beneath the present Biden administration.
However the inclusion of Musk in Trump’s internal circle this time round may additionally shake up NASA’s priorities.
As SpacePolicyOnline editor Marcia Smith recently noted, the US might double down on human spaceflight efforts, an endeavor lengthy championed by his new right-hand man. Remember that in his first time period, Trump offered the head of NASA limitless funding if the company may get to Mars throughout his presidency.
“For all the cash we’re spending, NASA ought to NOT be speaking about going to the Moon — We did that fifty years in the past,” Trump tweeted in 2019. “They need to be targeted on the a lot greater issues we’re doing, together with Mars (of which the Moon is a component), Protection and Science!”
That is all nonetheless hypothetical. In any case, Trump did not appoint Musk because the nation’s house coverage czar — as an alternative, the richest man on the planet has been put in command of a still-fictional “Department of Government Efficiency,” which can allegedly be tasked with “dismantling authorities paperwork” and slashing “extra rules.”
That function may facilitate Musk’s starvation to break down environmental rules that have been put in place, for example, to protect wildlife inhabiting the area surrounding his house firm’s so-called “Starbase” services in South Texas.
On the similar time, particularly given Trump’s ongoing denial of local weather change, different authorities companies such because the Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) or NASA’s Earth Sciences Division may face main finances cuts, Smith argued.
And remember thatNASA was already severely underfunded beneath the Biden administration, with Congress balking on the house company’s ballooning budgetary demands. Simply this week, NASA’s iconic Jet Propulsion Lab in California announced it might be shedding a further 325 staff.
The place a GOP-led Congress will depart NASA’s monetary scenario stays to be seen. As Smith factors out, round half of its finances is presently allotted to its human spaceflight program.
The brand new administration may additionally majorly shake up the Nationwide Area Council, which is by regulation overseen by the Vice President. As Bowen factors out, vice chairman Kamala Harris formalized a ban on anti-satellite weapons checks in 2022, one thing that might be revoked beneath vice president-elect JD Vance.
So far as we will inform, Vance has no background in house by any means, making his management over the council a giant query mark.
On a world degree, Trump’s saber-rattling “America First” method may significantly deteriorate international relations, particularly in the case of house.
Nevertheless, alienating the worldwide house group may have devastating results on the nation’s efforts to ascertain dominance in house.
“I believe we’re simply going to attend and see how that performs out,” former US Area Command deputy commander John Shaw mentioned throughout a latest episode the Area Basis podcast, as quoted by SpaceNews. “It’s arduous to do issues by yourself in house, as a result of we’re all in there collectively. It could be like making an attempt to do air visitors management all by your self.”
Extra on house coverage: It Sounds Like NASA’s Moon Rocket Might Be Getting Canceled