{"id":14796,"date":"2017-03-16T23:52:30","date_gmt":"2017-03-16T15:52:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/trump-budget-blueprint-focuses-on-deep-space-exploration-commercial-partnerships\/"},"modified":"2017-03-16T23:52:30","modified_gmt":"2017-03-16T15:52:30","slug":"trump-budget-blueprint-focuses-on-deep-space-exploration-commercial-partnerships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/trump-budget-blueprint-focuses-on-deep-space-exploration-commercial-partnerships\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump budget blueprint focuses on deep space exploration, commercial partnerships"},"content":{"rendered":"

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION<\/p>\n

\"\"
Artist\u2019s concept of NASA\u2019s Asteroid Redirect Mission grabbing a piece of an asteroid, a project due for cancellation under President Trump\u2019s budget proposal. Credit: NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Trump administration is proposing $19.1 billion for NASA in its fiscal 2018 budget blueprint, a 0.8 percent decrease from 2017 funding levels, focusing on deep space exploration, both human and robotic, and increased public-private partnerships to lower costs and encourage private sector innovation.<\/p>\n

But the budget blueprint terminates four Earth-science research missions, eliminates NASA\u2019s Office of Education, discards the agency\u2019s Asteroid Redirect Mission \u2014 the centerpiece of the Obama administration\u2019s deep space exploration plan \u2014 and makes no mention of human missions to Mars.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is responsible for increasing understanding of the universe and our place in it, advancing America\u2019s world-leading aerospace technology, inspiring the nation, and opening the space frontier,\u201d the Office of Management and Budget said in the proposal.<\/p>\n

The 2018 budget blueprint for NASA \u201cincreases cooperation with industry through the use of public-private partnerships, focuses the nation\u2019s efforts on deep space exploration rather than Earth-centric research, and develops technologies that would help achieve U.S. space goals and benefit the economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robert Lightfoot, NASA\u2019s acting administrator, said in a statement to agency employees that the FY2018 proposal is \u201ca positive budget overall for NASA.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know parts of the budget will create concerns for some,\u201d he said. \u201cAs with any budget, we have greater aspirations than we have means, but this blueprint provides us with considerable resources to carry out our mission, and I know we will make this nation proud.\u201d<\/p>\n

John Logsdon, a noted historian and space policy analyst, agreed, saying in an email to CBS News that the president\u2019s budget proposal supports the agency\u2019s big-ticket human and robotic exploration programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s most noteworthy to me is that NASA received only a minuscule budget reduction when the budgets of many other government agencies were cut by double digits,\u201d he said. \u201cThis validates what many have anticipated \u2014 that NASA and its human and robotic exploratory missions will fare well in a Trump administration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marcia Smith, editor of SpacePolicyOnline.com, came to a similar conclusion, writing the blueprint \u201cis good news considering the draconian cuts proposed for many other agencies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Obama\u2019s Asteroid Redirect Mission would be cancelled and NASA\u2019s Office of Education would be eliminated under the proposal, but other NASA programs survived relatively unscathed,\u201d she wrote. \u201cThe Earth science program is cut, but not as deeply as many feared.\u201d<\/p>\n

Increased NASA cooperation with the private sector was the top item listed in the OMB\u2019s budget blueprint, calling expanded public-private partnerships \u201cthe foundation of future U.S. civilian space efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe budget creates new opportunities for collaboration with industry on space station operations, supports public-private partnerships for deep-space habitation and exploration systems, funds data buys from companies operating small satellite constellations, and supports work with industry to develop and commercialize new space technologies,\u201d the OMB said.<\/p>\n

\"\"
A view of the moon transiting the Earth from the Deep Space Climate Observatory stationed nearly a million miles from Earth. Under the Trump administration\u2019s budget blueprint, NASA\u2019s participation in the DSCOVR mission would be terminated. Credit: NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The proposal includes $3.7 billion to continue development of NASA\u2019s Orion crew capsule and the huge Space Launch System heavy-lift booster needed for deep space missions to the moon or beyond. But to \u201caccommodate increasing development costs,\u201d the Asteroid Redirect Mission, or ARM, will be cancelled.<\/p>\n

Instead, \u201cNASA will investigate approaches for reducing the costs of exploration missions to enable a more expansive exploration program,\u201d the OMB said.<\/p>\n

NASA\u2019s long-range goal for human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit has been Mars, following the Obama administration\u2019s goal of sending astronauts to the red planet in the mid 2030s using Orion, a yet-to-be-developed habitation module and the SLS booster.<\/p>\n

More powerful than the legendary Saturn 5 booster that propelled Apollo astronauts to the moon, the SLS is scheduled for its first test flight in late 2018. The first piloted mission is targeted for the 2021 timeframe, although NASA is looking into the possibility of putting astronauts aboard the initial flight.<\/p>\n

Following those initial SLS-Orion shakedown missions, NASA had been working on plans to robotically retrieve a large boulder from a nearby asteroid in the early 2020s. The asteroid fragment would be hauled back to the vicinity of the moon for hands-on study and sample collection by astronauts aboard an SLS-launched Orion spacecraft in the mid 2020s.<\/p>\n

The ARM missions were seen as a precursor to piloted missions to Mars in the 2030s. But the project never won wide support in the science community or among Republicans and President Trump\u2019s budget blueprint would end the debate once and for all.<\/p>\n

The 2018 budget proposal includes $1.9 billion for robotic space exploration, including continued support for a probe that will repeatedly fly by Jupiter\u2019s moon Europa, which may harbor a sub-surface ocean habitat, and a mission in 2020 to send another nuclear-powered rover to Mars. Work to develop a multi-billion-dollar mission to land on Europa would be terminated.<\/p>\n

The budget also would provide $1.8 billion for NASA\u2019s Earth science directorate, cutting $102 million by eliminating four Earth science missions and reducing funding for Earth science research grants.<\/p>\n

And the proposal would eliminate NASA\u2019s Office of Education, saving another $110 million.<\/p>\n

The result will be \u201ca more focused education effort through NASA\u2019s Science Mission Directorate,\u201d the OMB said. \u201cThe Office of Education has experienced significant challenges in implementing a NASA-wide education strategy and is performing functions that are duplicative of other parts of the agency.\u201d<\/p>\n

Logsdon said it was not surprising that ARM was cancelled because \u201cthe mission has never been a favorite of Republicans in Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso not surprising, but unfortunate, are the cancelled Earth science missions,\u201d he said. \u201cBasically, NASA has been given a \u201cgo\u201d to continue on its current path, with changes at the margins. Most of those changes will meet with Congressional resistance, so the final outcome with respect to Earth science and the NASA Office of Education is still TBD. I doubt if ARM will survive.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION Artist\u2019s concept of NASA\u2019s Asteroid Redirect Mission grabbing a piece of an asteroid, a project due for cancellation under President Trump\u2019s budget proposal. Credit: NASA The Trump administration is proposing $19.1 billion for NASA in its fiscal 2018 budget blueprint, a 0.8 percent decrease from 2017 funding levels, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3383,2308,594,1873,1282,1545,367,1761],"class_list":["post-14796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-asteroid-redirect-mission","tag-dscovr","tag-earth-science","tag-education","tag-europa-clipper","tag-human-spaceflight","tag-mars","tag-mars-2020"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14796"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14796\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}