President Donald Trump said Friday that NASA should look beyond the moon to Mars, after his strategy for exploring space came under criticism from an Apollo 11 astronaut.
Talking about NASA’s ‘Moon to Mars’ mission that proposes to make the moon a lunar gateway to other planets and constellations, the president said the space agency should be thinking bigger.
‘They should be focused on the much bigger things we are doing, including Mars (of which the Moon is a part),’ he said.
President Donald Trump said Friday that NASA should look beyond the moon to Mars, after his strategy for exploring space came under criticism from an Apollo 11 astronaut
NASA doesn’t currently have a deadline for the first manned flight to Mars – a planet that’s 34 million miles away from earth and would take at least six months for ship to get to
Trump’s tweet was widely mocked for claiming that the moon ‘is a part’ of Mars as he referred to the mission that proposes to use the rocky surface as a central outpost.
Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins had speculated before the tweet that Trump might not know that Mars is a planet.
Collins told CNN, ‘I don’t think he’s too much aware of Mars. Maybe he doesn’t understand that there is a planet Mars.’
Trump swatted back in the tweet that intended to put pressure on NASA to refocus its space program on going to Mars rather than its gateway program.
‘For all of the money we are spending, NASA should NOT be talking about going to the Moon – We did that 50 years ago. They should be focused on the much bigger things we are doing, including Mars (of which the Moon is a part), Defense and Science!’ the president said.
He did not mention Collins, but the retired astronaut’s interview dropped earlier on Friday. The president was in the air on an hours-long flight back to Washington from one of his golf properties in Ireland.
He seemed to be receiving a briefing, or pursuing the news at the time of the message, that followed several others on tariffs, immigration and the House speaker.
Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins had speculated before the tweet that Trump might not know that Mars is a planet
Collins had compared Trump’s strategy unfavorably to the president who put him on the moon in the first manned spacecraft in 1969.
‘I’d prefer what I would call the John F. Kennedy express method,’ Collins said. ‘I think if we want to go to Mars, we should so declare and go — the same way President Kennedy described the forthcoming lunar landing.’
NASA doesn’t currently have a deadline for the first manned flight to Mars – a planet that’s 34 million miles away from earth and would take at least six months for ship to get to.
The first flight to the moon as part of the scientific research that aims to establish sustainable living quarters on the moon’s surface is scheduled for 2020. That flight will test NASA’s system, and a crew will not be on board. A 2022 flight on the aircraft with crew will circle but not land on the moon’s surface. Astronauts will not step foot on the moon’s surface, again, until 2024.
NASA has lunar flights planned once annually after that.
Vice President Mike Pence has been a major backer of the effort. He chairs the administration’s National Space Council. The U.S. president is also seeking to establish a sixth branch of the military, known as the Space Force.
The five-year, manned lunar-landing plan would extend beyond Trump’s first term in office, and force the program on a successor, if the Republican politician isn’t reelected.
Last month, the U.S. president said he’s asking Congress to appropriate $1.6 billion to the research.
‘Under my Administration, we are restoring @NASA to greatness and we are going back to the Moon, then Mars. I am updating my budget to include an additional $1.6 billion so that we can return to Space in a BIG WAY!’ he said in a May 13 tweet.
His message underscored the incremental approach of current NASA leadership to exploration of Mars and other areas of the solar system.
The $1.6 billion appropriation was also questioned, and the administration was forced to acknowledge it planned to reroute the funds from an $8 billion pot of money intended for Pell Grants.
Current grants wouldn’t be slashed – the number of grant recipients has decreased, the Associated Press reported. The money the Trump administration wants to tap into is part of a reserve.
But the grant coffers could run dry if another recession hits, and Trump will have used up the program’s reserves.
Collins had compared Trump’s strategy unfavorably to the president who put him on the moon in the first manned spacecraft in 1969: JFK
Former Astronaut Jose Hernandez said at the time of the announcement that Trump shouldn’t borrow from Pell Grants, which help low-income kids receive a higher education, to fund another lunar landing.
‘I’m all for space travel and returning to the moon but not at the expense of education! If the Pell Grant money is a surplus how about increasing the size of grants so college grads don’t graduate with so much debt?’ he said in a tweet.
Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, the chair of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, quickly slapped down the Pell Grant suggestion.
‘While I am a supporter of challenging human space exploration endeavors that can take us to the moon and eventually to Mars, based on the limited information provided to Congress it is impossible to judge the merits of the president’s budget amendment,’ she said. ‘We don’t know how much money will be required in total to meet the arbitrary 2024 moon landing deadline or how that money will be spent.’
She said in a statement, ‘We don’t know how much additional money will subsequently be required to turn the crash program to get astronauts to the moon by 2024 into a sustainable exploration program that will lead to Mars. And we don’t know what NASA’s technical plan for its lunar program is.’
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, a former conservative lawmaker, stressed that it was only a proposal. It’s up to Congress to decide how to fund NASA’s space exploration programs.
‘The way the process works — and I know a little bit about it — is that the administration makes a proposal to Congress. But that’s what it is, it is a proposal,’ Bridenstine said. ‘Then it’s over to Congress to say what they want to accept, what they don’t want to accept, what they want to ‘plus-up.’ ‘