Space ambitions: how Trump plans to expand funding for NASA's lunar program

The Donald Trump administration has requested an additional $ 1.6 billion from the US Congress as part of NASA financing for 2020. The funds are needed to carry out the project of landing the American astronauts on the moon by 2024.

“Under my administration, we will restore NASA’s former greatness and return to the moon, and then fly to Mars. I will adjust the budget and include an additional $ 1.6 billion so that we can return to space in a big way! ”The US president wrote on his Twitter.

Under my Administration, we’re restoring and we’re going back to the Moon, then Mars. BIG WAY!

Thus, in 2020, NASA will receive $ 22.6 billion. According to the department itself, most of this money will be spent on research and development of a new system for delivering astronauts to the Earth satellite.

However, Trump's initiative did not arouse enthusiasm among his political opponents - members of the Democratic Party in the US Congress.

“Based on the limited information that was provided to the congress, it is impossible to judge the merits of the budget amendments proposed by the president. It is not known how much money is needed to meet the unreasonable deadlines for landing on the moon by 2024, or how these funds will be spent, ”said Eddie Bernis Johnson, a Texas Democrat who chairs the US House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space. and technology.

However, she recalled that Trump plans to cut the budgets of other research agencies and government organizations. Thus, it is proposed to withdraw $ 1 billion from the budget of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, another $ 4.5 billion from the Department of Energy and $ 300 million from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

"Nationwide idea"

According to analysts, Trump insists on expanding the lunar program primarily for personal purposes. The championship in space can act as an American “super-idea” in the new election campaign of the 45th US President, because there are no other national projects left in the country, political scientists say.

• Astronaut James Irwin on the Moon, Apollo 15, 1971
• © NASA / David Scott / Handout via REUTERS

“Despite the fact that the congress is likely to freeze funding for this project, Trump in his rhetoric will use the expedition to the moon in the same way as the wall project on the border with Mexico. The president will still insist on his, receiving rejection after refusal. Nevertheless, this is a national idea, which, according to experts, its technologists, can give Trump additional votes and become unifying at a time when American society is quite seriously split, ”Asafov said.

In turn, American political scientist Mikhail Sinelnikov-Orishak, in an interview with RT, noted that Trump intends to restore NASA's reputation, presenting it as his merit.

“In American society, questions about NASA and its programs have been rising for years. The agency today has no achievements, except that shows a variety of videos. It should be borne in mind that the sums that Washington allocates to space programs are in fact not that big: until now, Americans fly into space on Russian engines, ”the expert recalled.

The program "Artemis"

Recall that NASA has not conducted manned space flights since 2011, when the program "Shuttle" was finally folded. Currently, American astronauts make flights to the ISS on Roscosmos missiles, and loads into orbit are delivered using ships with Russian RD-180 engines.

American astronauts landed six times on the moon as part of the Apollo program - from 1969 to 1972. In addition to the United States, only the USSR and China made landings on the lunar surface with the help of remotely operated moon rovers without the participation of astronauts.

After Trump's announcement of additional funding, NASA CEO Jim Brydenstein revealed the name of the new US lunar program.

“Our new lunar program will be named Artemis, sister of Apollo and the goddess of the Moon. We are extremely pleased that by 2024 we will land the first woman and another man on the surface of the moon, ”he said on Twitter.

Our # Moon2024 Apollo and the Goddess of the Moon. We are excited to be landing the moon by 2024. pic.twitter.com/ri0MnoZN0k

Moon dash

It is worth noting that NASA had previously planned to conduct a manned flight to the Moon only in 2028. However, US Vice President Michael Pence, who also oversees American space policy, called such a prospect "unacceptable." At the end of March, speaking at a meeting of the National Space Council, he said that the president had called for the reduction of terms by any means and had given the appropriate order to the head of department, Brydenstein.

The resumption of manned flights to the moon, the constant presence of American astronauts on it, and the organization of further manned flights to Mars became the main objectives of the US space program after Donald Trump came to power.

For these purposes, the 45th President, by his decree, resumed the work of the National Space Council in 2017, which was dissolved in 1993, and appointed him head of the vice-president Pens.

Then, in December 2017, the Trump administration commissioned NASA to focus on returning to the moon with a view to its “long-term use” as a platform for further exploration of outer space.

Thus, Trump completely dismantled plans for space exploration, which were proposed by his predecessor. Barack Obama’s program was more restrained in terms of targets and provided for astronauts to land on one of the asteroids in near-earth orbit only by 2035.

After the end of the Shuttle program, NASA has to rely on private companies that are actively developing new means of delivering people to other planets. This led to the emergence of a phenomenon in the United States that the media called the "space race of billionaires." The top three are SpaceX Ilona Mask, Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin and Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic.

• Jeff Bezos, head of trading giant Amazon and aerospace company Blue Moon, presented a new module in which American astronauts will go to the moon
• Reuters
• © Clodagh Kilcoyne

A few days before Trump announced his intention to expand funding for NASA, Amazon’s merchant giant Jeff Bezos introduced the Blue Moon moon shipping system, which was developed by his aerospace company Blue Origin. According to the businessman, the Moon is a good place to start production in space, because its gravity is less than that of Earth.

Militarization of space

The head of "Roscosmos" Dmitry Rogozin in early April, said that the plans of the United States to land people on the moon can only serve as a cover for carrying out "certain operations."

“We understand that in the past decades, and now often, such operations in space are a kind of cover for carrying out certain undeclared operations. Cosmos is not only civil, ”suggested Rogozin.

Experts also admit that the statements of Trump and Pence about returning to the moon can be regarded as a step towards the militarization of space.

“The constant statements of Trump and his entourage that Russia and China are preparing to seize space, and that efforts need to be stepped up in this direction, are on the same line. Announcement of return to the moon - a competitive aspect in the great struggle for space. Both China and Russia, in the opinion of Trump and his entourage, are conducting an active militarist program for the development of interstellar space, for creating space strike systems, therefore the Americans want to be ahead, ”Asafov said.

In addition, as the expert stressed, Trump believes that he needs to spend money on defense and on space in order to restart the economy and give it a new impetus to development.

“Cosmos is also an economic tool. You can endlessly invest money in space and create new jobs in this industry, which will have a positive effect on the US economy. In some ways this, of course, will affect inflation, but Trump is not very concerned. Creating government orders he cares much more. And the lunar program is, without doubt, a mass of such orders, ”the political scientist believes.

According to Mikhail Sinelnikov-Orishak, having carried out a quick landing on the moon of American astronauts, Trump thus intends to "stake out" the outer space behind the United States.

“Today on the international space arena there is competition between the United States, Russia and China. If America does not take any action regarding the landing on the moon, the Americans will be left behind, ”the expert concluded.