Trump’s Budget For NASA Gets A Cut; How Will It Affect Space Science?

The budget for NASA is getting a cut this time under Trump administration. Though it is not a huge difference, it still has an impact on some of the major programs that were not very popular. NASA received a 0.8 percent cut whereas other federal agencies received some massive cuts, especially the Environmental Protection Agency which received a 31 percent cut.

With the cut for NASA, the entire education program, which is useful in improving science education and encouragement that budgeted $115 million, and some scheduled missions are getting canceled. Though some cuts are considered to be good for the agency in avoiding unwanted spending, the education program is a different story as it may affect aspiring science students.

With the budget cut, NASA's Asteroid Redirect Mission would be canceled, and it would make many people happy. It is a mission to robotically bring an asteroid piece to Moon's orbit so that people can visit an asteroid in orbit. It was not a popular mission with no realistic goals in the long term and invited extensive criticism when it introduced in 2010.

Another major mission that gets a cut is called Europa landing mission, a drive to land on Jupiter's satellite Europa to study the presence of aliens and to check if micro-organisms are present in its surface. Interestingly, the current budget did not receive any funds for the mission, and hence it is considered to be dropped as of now. Also, there are some significant cuts on Earth science programs as Trump wants NASA to focus on space science. Trump also called to turn off the Earth-observing satellites including DSCOVR.

NASA has made some significant partnerships with other nations and their agencies on sharing various data including environmental data that helps to manage food shortages. Another important partnership is the work with Russia on the International Space Station. It is believed that all these partnerships may get a hit considering the policy of President Donald Trump to focus on space science.