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The last time Americans walked on the moon was in December of 1972. The hope was that we would again in 2027.
But, President Donald Trump could kill off those plans to make his new right-hand man Elon Musk happy and push the effort for man to finally reach Mars.
“Elon’s gonna go into orbit soon. He’s going to go to Mars,” the president, who has previously asserted that NASA should not be focused on the moon, told Fox News host Sean Hannity earlier this week.
“At some point,” Space X founder Musk added. “They always ask me: ‘Do you wanna die on Mars?’ And I say, ‘Well, yes, but not on impact,’” Musk added.
Musk has not been bashful about his hopes to go to Mars. He has talked about it and worn T-shirts at Trump rallies promoting a mission to the Red Planet. NASA has been pushing for a return to the moon but now questions swirl regarding whether Trump will continue the Artemis project or skip the moon and push ahead to Mars.
A possible shift may also be marked by the departure of longtime associate administrator Jim Free, whose retirement was announced this week. Free oversaw the development of NASA’s highly ambitious Artemis program.
Under the program, NASA hopes to make major strides in a space race with China and Russia. It is quite pricey, and a 2021 report from the agency’s Office of Inspector General found that aggregate costs are projected at $93 billion. In the years since its launch, the program has faced significant delays to its timeline. Its stated long-term goal is to create a base on the moon to help astronauts travel to Mars.
Trump has not made his intentions clear on whether he wants to continue the moon mission. He removed a piece of moon rock that Joe Biden kept in the Oval Office and said on his first day that American astronauts would “plant the stars and stripes on the planet Mars.”
He has not issued an executive order, however, to back up any Mars mission.
The Artemis program was first established in 2017, during Trump’s first term in office. Nearly a year into his presidency, he signed a directive aimed at refocusing the U.S. space program on human exploration and discovery, creating a “foundation for an eventual mission to Mars, and perhaps someday, to many worlds beyond.”
Artemis is slated to mark the return of humanity’s lunar visit and the first crewed flight test of the Space Launch System, of which aerospace giant Boeing is the prime contractor. The first phase, the uncrewed first flight of the Space Launch System rocket, took place in 2022.
It’s all a part of NASA’s “Moon to Mars” architecture, hoping to take humanity farther from home than it’s ever been before. Former NASA administrator Bill Nelson called the Artemis campaign “the most daring, technically challenging, collaborative, international endeavor humanity has ever set out to do.”
However, to multi-planetary advocate Musk, focusing on areas other than Mars and using commercial companies other than SpaceX may be seen as fruitless. That could throw a wrench into NASA’s plan and what Trump wants to pursue.
On Thursday, Musk suggested that NASA should begin preparations to deorbit the International Space Station, saying the orbiting laboratory has “served its purpose.”
“There is very little incremental utility. Let’s go to Mars,” he said, noting that while the decision remains “up to the president” his recommendation for that process is deorbiting two years from now.
In January he called the moon a “distraction.”
“No, we’re going straight to Mars. The moon is a distraction,” Musk, who frequently wears a t-shirt emblazoned with the words “Occupy Mars”, wrote on his social media platform X. “Mass to orbit is the key metric, thereafter mass to Mars surface. The former needs to be in the megaton to orbit per year range to build a self-sustaining colony on Mars.”
A transition away from the moon is something Boeing is reportedly preparing for. The company says it is planning to issue layoff notices to “align with revisions to the Artemis program and cost expectations,” Bloomberg reported.
NASA is on the Department of Government Efficiency – the quasi-government agency spearheaded by Musk looking to trim the federal budget – chopping block, as well. Although, it managed to escape cuts this week.
Jared Isaacman, the nominee to lead NASA under Trump’s second term and a billionaire himself, appears to be on the Mars train. Although, it’s not exactly clear if he’s in lockstep with a 180-degree turn, and he still needs to be confirmed by the Senate.
He wrote a long essay about the future of space exploration three days ago, responding to an image of Mars. He discussed enabling humanity to survive “beyond Earth” but did not discuss the agency’s climate science.
“Let’s do it! To the Moon, Mars and Beyond! America is going,” Isaacman said.
Acting Administrator Janet Petro has also recently said that the moon is still a big part of NASA’s human spaceflight plans.
She cited “boots on Mars” but also a presence on the moon, Space.com reported last week. “Many, many, many boots on the moon — that, to me, would be incredible to see,” said Petro..
Last week a NASA spokesperson told NPR that the agency is “looking forward to hearing more about the Trump administration’s plans for our agency and expanding exploration for the benefit of all, including sending American astronauts on the first human mission to the Red Planet.”
Aerospace engineer Robert Zubrin, who believes it’s “pretty clear” that the U.S. will start a humans-to-Mars program, told the organization that this time is filled with both risk and reward. He voiced concerns about Mars becoming a partisan issue.
“We need to have bipartisan support. This cannot be viewed as a Trump program or a Musk program. It has to be America’s program,” Zubrin said.
