NASA in crisis: has never been so low, many missions abandoned
Infographic of the missions that NASA will have to cancel in the event of adoption of the budget proposed by the White House (those in collaboration, in particular with ESA, are reported by an asterisk). © Paul Byrne
The United States Space Agency may never be as before. The world leadership of NASA in the fields of astronomical and spatial sciences seems more than ever questioned. Indeed, the white house of President Donald Trump has just given up offering Jared Isaacmana relative of Elon Musk, as administrator of the agency, when he was supported by the Democrats and Republicans. Reason invoked, he would not sufficiently support the policy of reducing expenses wanted by the tenant of the oval office.
If accepted by the US Congress, the NASA budget proposed by the federal government would become the lowest since 1961. It would then go from an envelope of $ 25 billion to 19 billion, a reduction of more than 30 %.
NASA tries to stand up to Donald Trump
The planetary missions barred in red could be abandoned. © Tuttle Keane
The space agency therefore launches a large alarm signal and shows everything that should be abandoned in the event of adoption of this very limited budget. As indicated in the infographic above, the so-called planetary missions would be concerned in the first place. Among the best known, Juno, currently orbit around the giant gaseous Jupiter. This probe has certainly completed its primary mission, but has so far seen its observations extended each year. Another source of despair for planetologists, the return of Martian samples taken by The Rover Perseverance would be abandoned.
Also forgotten, the inclinations of establishing a permanent American presence on the moon. Potential consequence of the financial drying up of NASA, the orbital space station Luna Gateway would never see the light of day. The SLLS Superlourd launcher would be canceled after Artemis III.
On the side of astrophysical science, here is another infographic that shows the extent of the damage:
Infographic of abandoned astrophysical missions to respect the budget proposal for NASA. Some missions, such as Euclid, are collaborations with other global agencies. © Laura Lopez
Here, the budget of Nancy Grace Roman Telescopefuture large of the observation of the universe, would be divided by two. In addition, we would witness the total abandonment of the Lisa collaboration, which aims to build an orbit interferometer in order to study the gravitational waves even more finely than the current Ligo-Virgo detectors. In general, all international collaborations would be amputated, such as those with the European Agency ESA which, itself, broke its relations with Russian Roscosmos in 2022 and should read Asia more (China, Japan, India).
The biggest reduction in history for NASA
With almost all future expenses on scientific projects divided by two, the good news is very rare. (Light) relief patterns, we would witness the maintenance of the program Dragonflyas well as $ 864 million allocated to start working on a inhabited Martian mission. Like a farewell gift to Elon Musk?
Want to save even more? Discover Our promo codes Selected for you.
