Trump wants NASA to get back to the moon as soon as possible
President Donald Trump has big plans for our astronauts. At the moment, he regards the United States as the first country in the world when it comes to space exploration, and vows it will keep it on the first place. Therefore, he wants the astronauts to return to the moon and, then, go on the first manned mission to Mars.
On December 11th, Trump signed the document which was meant to preserve the US’s leadership status in space exploration. The document was the Space Policy Directive 1, involving a new NASA mission on the moon. Then, the next step is to prepare for a mission on Mars. The president seemed determined to maintain the status of our space missions.
“We are the leader and we’re going to stay the leader, and we’re going to increase it many fold.”
When the first men laid foot on the moon, there started an avid race between the rest of the countries to see who manages to send their astronauts to the moon. After this passed, people stopped thinking about space exploration, and concentrated on other types of space missions. Therefore, Trump wants to restart this exploration race which seemed to have died out.
China is getting ready for a manned lunar mission as well
However, this might not actually be the situation worldwide. China remains one of the countries that still wants to perform space exploration missions. The country is currently preparing a new lunar mission, and declared it was closed to finishing all the details to send an astronaut to the moon.
Trump might be wanting to start another lunar exploration mission, but there are plenty of things to deal with before. Such missions might not be new for the US astronauts, but they still funding. Only if the astronauts get all the money they need can they make sure everything is set for launch.
In March, Trump signed an agreement which increased NASA’s budget by $19.5 billion. Even if it sounds like a lot of money, it’s not that much compared to the funding offered to the first lunar missions.
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