Unfortunately, the White House has proposed to double down on these initiatives by targeting NASA’s budget for a deep cut. Cutting NASA by 24%. Experts and commercial human spaceflight advocacy groups are dismayed by this decision. They caution that these types of cuts would cripple many active and upcoming space missions. The American Astronomical Society (AAS) has a poignant description of the damaging effects of recent budget cuts. These cuts will delay the completion of numerous critical projects, including the much awaited Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.
The scientific progress they promised is now in peril due to proposed budget cuts. They deepen major concerns for national security and defense of our planet. The AAS cautions that such cuts could seriously limit the United States’ capacity to forecast space weather. This advanced forecasting is extremely important for protecting our satellites and other valuable technological assets in space. As The Planetary Society has repeatedly cautioned, arbitrary budget cuts threaten to dismantle vital programs. A high-profile example of such a program is the Mars Sample Return mission, an ambitious initiative intended to return samples from Mars back to Earth.
The proposed budget would impose a shocking 50% cut to the funding of Earth science projects. This dramatic cut occurs at a time when we are faced with the enormous challenges in understanding our planet’s changing climate and environments. For more than a year, NASA’s Perseverance rover has been busy gathering samples on Mars. It depends on recurrent funding to do the critical lab-based analysis of those samples. Both planetary and Earth sciences would suffer if these resources are cut, experts strongly argue.
In their new blog post, researchers note that the effects of these budget cuts will reach well beyond the unsheltered population. Because of the very nature of scientific research, so many projects take years, if not decades, to plan and bring to realization. For that reason, the harmful impacts of these proposed cuts would mostly be experienced deep in the future.
“These cuts would damage a broad range of research areas that will not be supported by the private sector. The negative consequences would be exacerbated because many research efforts can require years to decades to mature and reach fruition,” – American Astronomical Society
That’s why at The Planetary Society we have strongly opposed this proposed budget. They’ve called it the biggest single-year cut to NASA in American history. The coalition argues that such extreme cuts would threaten numerous still-operational missions worth billions of dollars. Further, they caution that these cuts would risk ceding America’s leadership in the field of space exploration.
“It would recklessly slash NASA’s science budget by 47%, forcing widespread terminations of functional missions worth billions of dollars,” – The Planetary Society
We told you about the skinny budget’s deep funding cuts for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate and the National Science Foundation. As AAS notes, such cuts would bring about a historic drop in American investments in fundamental scientific research.
“If enacted, the 56% cut to the National Science Foundation, the 47% cut to NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, and the 14% cut to the Department of Energy’s Office of Science would result in a historic decline of American investment in basic scientific research,” – American Astronomical Society
The proposed budget calls for the cancellation of the Lunar Gateway project, a space station intended to orbit the moon. Even as they’ve reached critical design and construction milestones here on Earth, this marquee project looks to be living on borrowed time under the president’s new budget blueprint.
“The White House has proposed the largest single-year cut to [NASA] in American history,” – The Planetary Society
These severe cuts to NASA’s budget would be devastating to the agency’s operational potential. They pose a grave threat to our national security. Just like with Earth weather forecasting, space weather forecasting is vital for maintaining satellite operations. Beyond that, it protects Earth’s infrastructure from solar storms. The cut in funding for these important initiatives begs the question of whether or not America is prepared to respond to possible space-related threats.
“This budget, as overseen by OMB Director Russ Vought, is not supportive of President Trump’s own stated goal that America must ‘lead the way in fueling the pursuit of space discovery and exploration,’” – The Planetary Society
U.S. legislators have raised a similar alarm over the disruptive effects these proposed cuts would have. Rep. Judy Chu and Rep. Don Bacon, co-chairs of the U.S. Planetary Science Caucus, expressed their concern. Needless to say, they were stunned at the news that NASA’s science funding may be cut by almost 50%.
“We are extremely alarmed by reports of a preliminary White House budget that proposes cutting NASA Science funding by almost half and terminating dozens of programs already well underway, like the Mars Sample Return mission and the Roman Space Telescope,” – U.S. Planetary Science Caucus co-chairs Rep. Judy Chu and Rep. Don Bacon
