US President Donald Trump salutes the nation alongside former US Senator and Apollo 17 Astronaut Jack Schmitt (3rd R), and NASA Astronaut Peggy Whitson (2nd R) after a signing ceremony for Space Policy Directive 1, with the aim of returning Americans to the Moon. Image credit: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images.

Sorry America, We’re Not Going Back To The Moon

The President laid out his ambition, but no money to fund it. It’s a classic Trump move, and a recipe for failure.

Last week, President Trump signed Space Policy Directive 1, designed to refocus NASA’s mission on human exploration and spaceflight. Proclaiming, “This time, we will not only plant our flag and leave our footprint, we will establish a foundation for an eventual mission to Mars and, perhaps someday, to many worlds beyond,” Trump made a promise that should sound familiar to American citizens, as many incoming presidents (including Obama and both Bushes) have made similar plans and proclamations. Like all plans, to bring this one to fruition will require a tremendous investment of resources: in people, in equipment and facilities, in research and development, and in terms of money as well. With no plans for adequate, additional funding to support these ambitions, these dreams will simply evaporate, as they have so many times before.

As a percentage of the federal budget, investment in NASA is at a 58 year low; at only 0.4% of the budget, you have to go back to 1959 to find a year where we invested a smaller percentage in our nation’s space agency. Image credit: Office of Management & Budget.

If you look at the percent of the federal budget currently being invested in NASA, you’ll find that you have to go all the way back to 1959, the first full…