The president’s budget request for NASA is out, and it looks like the space program won’t be dealing with as numerous extreme cuts that other federal agencies are facing next year. That office would see a $900 million cut out of its $5 billion budget under Trump’s proposal. Trump’s budget does, however, contain language encouraging the public private partnership in future space missions.
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As if that’s not enough, an EPA program to help provide clean water and sewage treatment systems to native Alaskan villages on the front lines of climate change in the fast-changing Arctic, where melting sea ice and thawing permafrost have posed threats to communities, would also be eliminated.
The budget request also pledges more support for public-private partnerships for US space exploration, but did not include specific funding initiatives. Former President Barack Obama proposed in 2016 that NASA should receive only $19 billion. “We consider that to be a waste of your money to go out and do that”. Congress could still decide to make changes to the budget. Opponents of the reductions say there historically has been room for negotiation in Congress to continue funding for space and science programs. The document shows a $200 million cut in the funding of the federal space agency, which means a 1 percent decrease, which represents an annual budget of $19.1 billion.
The budget would end programs to lower domestic greenhouse gas emissions, slash diplomatic efforts to slow climate change and cut scientific missions to study the climate.
Trump’s budget does cut dozens of federal climate programs, but the deep cuts many feared would hit the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) didn’t materialize. Two have at least some implications for Goddard, a 58-year-old Greenbelt, Md., institution that employs some 10,000 civil servants and contractors.
“While this budget no longer funds a formal Office of Education, NASA will continue to inspire the next generation through our missions and channel education efforts in a more focused way through the robust portfolio of our Science Mission Directorate”.
In a letter accompanying the budget, President Trump justifies the cuts by saying the government “must make the safety of our people its number one priority- because without safety, there can be no prosperity”. “The work there is extremely valuable to the quality of life in America”.
The latter exploration aims to prove that liquid ocean exists in one of the satellites of the massive planet.
Monitoring the state of Earth’s oceans is crucial for understanding how the planet responds to climate change.
The satellite works by tracking the brightness of sunlight reflected off Earth’s surface, looking specifically at infrared wavelengths that oxygen and carbon dioxide absorb.
In the agency’s 2017 budget request, projected spending on the CLARREO Pathfinder was $27.9 million, $9.5 million on OCO-3, $1.2 million on DSCOVR, and no actual figures provided for PACE.
John Logsdon, a noted historian and space policy analyst, agreed, saying in an email to CBS News that the president’s budget proposal supports the agency’s big-ticket human and robotic exploration programs. The biggest losers are Earth science and education.
The budget calls for eliminating funding for the earth-viewing apparatus, not the solar instruments.
The administration also wants to expand the agency’s work with private companies, bolstering the private sector space exploration. As a result, some of NASA missions, now in development – including the mission to Jupiter’s icy moon Europa and NASA Earth science missions – could be shuttered.
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“This is in line with our funding in recent years, and will enable us to effectively execute our core mission for the nation, even during these times of fiscal constraint”, acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot said in a statement.
