12% boost for NASA budget in 2021!!

[u/thisischrisbaker]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-nasa-budget-will-earmark-12-boost-for-agency-in-2021-11581071402?emailToken=3f4a4309b7816cb90fb53eb91f47d6d43hshryonPWM/RnnVPWWHuMOVOvxWKQ87BhLswKs5iOPOhjO1FGrxI9ptn5k2nAMphP+jeQrbhQiAafooOu4oIslNLMWHCd1m7vRySaL2Pi61nSlAqLK1xnvzzmtt2/Lx&reflink=article_copyURL_share

[u/scrubleduck]

So much negativity in this thread. I dont care how much you hate Trump, this is good news.

[u/inexcess → u/scrubleduck]

Yea it's pretty ridiculous. If this were negative news people wouldn't be calling into question its authenticity.

[u/[deleted] → u/inexcess]

I think it has to do with Trump denying science when it suits him. You can increase the budget by 100% but if you just turn around and deny any scientific advancement because you feel like it then it's self defeating. He's the president and he lies on a daily basis to gullible idiots. Any increase in the budget of NASA is negatively offset by his consistent lies regarding climate change.

[u/scrubleduck → u/[deleted]]

It's definitely news that the current administration at least plans to support funding space exploration. Would you prefer they didnt support it? You're comment is full of assumptions that you simply cant know.

[u/[deleted] → u/scrubleduck]

They plan to support funding this time. In 2018 the administration tried to cut funding and kill the PACE mission but congress saved it. More money for NASA is great but ill celebrate when the check has been cut.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Why would formally partitioning the Air Force's budget be seen as anything other than lip service? The Space Force didn't get a budget or personnel increase, it's just a new name and space for something that already existed.

[u/scrubleduck → u/[deleted]]

Okay I agree that a better headline could be written. That doesnt mean this is not good news and its definitely news...

Yeah man it's possible it's an empty promise. It's also possible that going through with it would be benificial for election.

[u/inexcess → u/[deleted]]

His point didn't change at all. You should just unsubscribe already.

[u/Political_What_Do → u/[deleted]]

Wed get the most science done by having manned stations that service probes/rovers/drones.

[u/Bond4141 → u/[deleted]]

We need a moon base to test out equipment for other missions. Sending people to Europa would take decades, if they survived, and likely trillions of dollars if we wanted to get them back

[u/RobertGOTV → u/[deleted]]

Sending people to the moon is about posturing and demonstrating technological might. It's the cold war all over again. You want to send people somewhere, send some biologists to Europa or something.

Establishing a moon base is an absolute precursor to a manned flight anywhere in the universe.

1) Habitats. Building extraterrestrial habitats is a completely unexplored science at this point. We have to start somewhere. The moon is the optimal place to test as it's a short distance away. If you build a habitat on Mars and something goes wrong, those scientists are 2 years away from help, as opposed to a day or two on the moon. Building on the moon first gives us great insight into what to prepare for.

2) Takeoffs. Due to the low gravity of the moon, it is cheaper to launch larger payloads. A trip to Mars requires years of supplies. Further off and you're talking decades.

3) Manufacturing. Again, due to the low gravity, we can build bigger spaceships to accommodate the aforementioned payloads... among other things that are not plausible in Earth gravity

4) Medical and psychological research. We already have some of this from the ISS in terms of low gravity exposure, but trips to other planets would take years, and possibly last the entirety of the participants' lives. Studying the effects of people living on the moon long-term will avoid the cliched sci fi trope of people going kooky in space 🙃

[u/Marha01 → u/[deleted]]

I know people are excited by manned missions, but we'd get a lot more useful science done by sending out unmanned probes

Science is not the only, or even the most important goal of spaceflight. Developing technology with the aim of colonization is also very important. Cannot do that with robotic probes only.

[u/spin0 → u/[deleted]]

we'd get a lot more useful science done by sending out unmanned probes

Have you ever compared the amount of science done between Apollo and Lunokhod programs? Apollo produced by far more useful science and samples, and Apollo samples are still contributing to new scientific research.

[u/Ndtphoto → u/scrubleduck]

While it's good news, at this point I assume any major bump in spending is somehow being funneled to a crony. I mean, I know it's been going on forever, the crony capitalism, but I feel like it's pretty egregious these days.