It’s been really interesting watching Trump II dismantle programs established by Trump I.
Trade deals, cybersecurity initiatives, election integrity programs, and this, the Artemis program created by Trump’s administration in 2017.
We are betting the farm on SpaceX now. All in on Starship, throwing away the only component of the return to the moon that was proven to actually work. If the next IATF ends in RUD then Starship probably isn’t getting to the Moon any faster than when it was part of Artemis.
sidewndr46 · 2h ago
I'm not much of a SpaceX fan or critic, but when it comes to manned space flight in the US we have been going "back to the moon" since around the time the Saturn / Apollo program was shuttered. I've never produced a calendar of these announcements, but it's almost a constant theme in US politics.
The main reason we haven't gone back to the moon is it not really that appealing. There were some valid scientific reasons for going to the moon originally and the final Apollo mission took a geologist. Beyond that, there isn't much reason to be there. It's substantially less inhabitable than Antarctica and we don't bother living there in a permanent fashion, although it does notionally have a population there 365 days a year.
Cancelling manned moon missions would potentially free up more resources for robotic missions, which NASA and their partner agencies have an excellent track record of.
kemotep · 1h ago
Well tragically this isn’t just canceling Artemis, this executive order calls to gut nearly all scientific missions and significantly reduce the budget of NASA.
huxley · 2h ago
“Substantially less inhabitable than Antarctica” is true of every single place that we know of outside our planet.
tekla · 27m ago
> We are betting the farm on SpaceX now
When hasn't that been true? Artemis is useless for landing on the moon without Starship. BO has a contract but thats still years in the future and considered secondary.
Trade deals, cybersecurity initiatives, election integrity programs, and this, the Artemis program created by Trump’s administration in 2017.
We are betting the farm on SpaceX now. All in on Starship, throwing away the only component of the return to the moon that was proven to actually work. If the next IATF ends in RUD then Starship probably isn’t getting to the Moon any faster than when it was part of Artemis.
The main reason we haven't gone back to the moon is it not really that appealing. There were some valid scientific reasons for going to the moon originally and the final Apollo mission took a geologist. Beyond that, there isn't much reason to be there. It's substantially less inhabitable than Antarctica and we don't bother living there in a permanent fashion, although it does notionally have a population there 365 days a year.
Cancelling manned moon missions would potentially free up more resources for robotic missions, which NASA and their partner agencies have an excellent track record of.
When hasn't that been true? Artemis is useless for landing on the moon without Starship. BO has a contract but thats still years in the future and considered secondary.