President Donald Trump has set ambitious goals for a revived American space program, but he'll need to follow through with dollars and hard decisions to make them reality.
Sending astronauts to Mars alone would cost an estimated $1 trillion over the next 25 years, according to the director of the Mars Institute, a research organization partially funded by NASA. But Trump has requested just $19.9 billion for NASA in his proposed budget for next year, and his nominee to head the agency is bogged down in a confirmation fight involving Earth-bound issues like same-sex marriage.
Still, supporters of the space effort credit the Trump administration with helping to add excitement and public-private cooperation to a bold strategy for exploration and economic development — on top of the investments that newer companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin are making in the sector.
Read the full article at Politico
Authors
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Adam Routh
Research Associate, Defense Program
Adam Routh is a Research Associate with the Defense Program at the Center for a New American Security and a PhD student in the Defence Studies Department at King’s College Lon...
