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The privtely devloped SpaceX Dragon 6 resupply capsule nears the International Space Station in 2016. President Trump’s order to refocus space policy on human missions to the moon and Mars is not accompanied by funding. (NASA TV via Associated Press)
President Trump, whose first budget proposal called for a substantial reduction in NASA’s budget, signed a directive Monday refocusing the space program on returning humans to the moon as a precursor to human missions to Mars.
That ambitious agenda did not come with an ambitious commitment to funding, however. NASA has estimated that a new human mission to the moon would cost about $100 billion.
Trump’s directive instructs the agency to work with the growing private space industry and other government space agencies around the world to send people to the moon. Japan, China, Russia and the European Union all have expressed interest. But Trump’s assumption that NASA would lead such an enterprise has to come with a definitive commitment of money.
It would be a tragedy for science if the administration plans to fund human missions with cuts to science missions that are far more cost-effective and productive. Trump already has cut back on NASA’s earth science — a mistake.
Major science missions, such as the recently concluded Cassini at Saturn, the multiple rovers on Mars, and Galileo at Jupiter vastly have expanded planetary science. Meanwhile, the invaluable Hubble Space Telescope probably is the most important scientific instrument in history, at a fraction of the cost of human missions. And NASA plans to launch the $8.8 billion James Webb Telescope mission in 2019. In an orbit beyond the moon, the Webb telescope is planned to exponentially eclipse even Hubble’s performance.
The return of humans to the moon and a leap beyond truly would be exciting, but it should not come at the expense of the hard science that cost-effectively has expanded humanity’s understanding of the universe.
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