Talk: "America first!"
Actual policy: "America... whatever..."
The scale of anti-science policies is historic in their scale and even breadth of topics.
The US is actively choosing to become completely reliant on private providers for access to space, which at this point boils down to SpaceX and Boeing. Both seem unreliable for different reasons. I just cannot see it as anything else than a blunder.
The primary source this article's reporting on is
https://www.planetary.org/articles/nasa-2026-budget-proposal... ("NASA's disastrous 2026 budget proposal in seven charts")
These kind of policies and that amortization tax law for software development will probably encourage quite some exodus of talent. Would it be to Europe or South East Asia, though?
The All-In-Podcast recently interviewed (1-1) Jared Isaacman (NASA admin nominee) about the bloat.
Worth watching the whole interview ~1 hour.
[0] Jared Isaacman: What went wrong at NASA | The All-In Interview https://youtu.be/6YdOjoaQTOQ?si=FUeL8mJ6LwHwO_B4&t=1275
It makes sense that NASA should abandon the SLS and focus on where there isn't already heavy private investment, space launch already has like 8-10 companies competing. Artemis should be refactored to be much cheaper and launch via private companies.
It continues to be a long four years.
NASA has become the DMV for space. It's not the NASA of Wernher von Braun anymore. That's what we should be going for.
This quote about New Horizons is puzzling
> The New Horizons spacecraft [...] reached Pluto in 2016 and is currently exploring other distant features of the system [...]. Keeping it running today by receiving its transmitted data and making sure it remains on course costs about $14.7 million a year, or less than 2% of its total price tag.
Does anyone know why this would be so expensive? A slice of Deep Space Network time must be expensive but it still sounds like an outrageous figure to me.
Sometimes I mourn not finishing my astronomy degree, but ultimately I suppose I went the right direction.
Trump admin is just so selfish and parasitic. How do they not understand that science, research, and innovation are what drive the economy they are trying to rob?
Truly evil and incompetent.
They will build s.th. working eventually. Even if it costs 10x as spaceX and the Russians laugh about it.
Are these people so deluded by American Exceptionalism they think this spending is unnecessary? Or is it that they do not care about anything but accumulating a few extra dollars?
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The plan is working then.
Leading with "Trump" just makes it political/ideological. People need to stop making "the personality" the center of these discussions, because people who like him will just like whatever he does, and immediately disagree with you. Focus on the issue instead and people have to debate on merits rather than ideology.
Or until you know… some future President restores the NASA budget?
Wherever budget cuts are proposed, you can rely upon detractors to present the issue in apocalyptic terms. If we believed all of these claims, then it would be impossible to cut the scope of government spending. Furthermore, if we accepted the premise promoted by some commenters here, then research, which is presented as incredibly valuable - would be unable to be funded or valued in the private market. For these reasons I regard this topic to be filled with political hyperbole.
Yes, there will be occasions where valuable research is funded by the state. It doesn't follow that this is the only way to fund research. Arguments can be made for either case. Depending on your ideological background you may find some of them amenable. Pragmatism may also play a role. However, presentations like this are completely divorced from reason.
Well, yes, that's the point. Authoritarians want to consolidate power and loot wealth, not improve things or make the world a better place.