White House may seek to slash NASA’s science budget by 50 percent

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Flyaway said:
All I’ll say is keep in mind this is the acting NASA administrator, and also the secretary of the department of transport talking here.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1956098905445134782
View: https://x.com/SecDuffyNASA/status/1956098905445134782
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“And as acting NASA administrator, it has come to my attention that there is a planet… some call it “Venus”… which apparently suffers from the Woke “Greenhouse Effect”.

This DEI bullsh*t will stop! “Venus”, if that is it’s real name, is merely suffering from a planetary fever…

As such, it needs rest, and to not be bothered with space “probes” for the forseeable future - just like Earth.”
 
Remember I mentioned this last week on this thread.

www.scientificamerican.com

NASA Budget Cuts Could End U.S. Exploration of the Outer Solar System

The U.S. planetary science community is sounding the alarm about plans to discard a nuclear technology that has powered dozens of NASA missions over the past 50 years
www.scientificamerican.com www.scientificamerican.com

August 14, 2025

NASA Budget Cuts Could End U.S. Exploration of the Outer Solar System
The U.S. planetary science community is sounding the alarm about plans to discard a nuclear technology that has powered dozens of NASA missions over the past 50 years
By Hannah Richter edited by Lee Billings


In the spring of 2022 the U.S. space community selected its top priority for the nation’s next decade of science and exploration: a mission to Uranus, the gassy, bluish planet only seen up close during a brief spacecraft flyby in 1986. More than 2.6 billion kilometers from Earth at its nearest approach, Uranus still beckons with what it could reveal about the solar system’s early history—and the overwhelming numbers of Uranus-sized worlds that astronomers have spied around other stars. Now President Donald Trump’s proposed cuts to NASA could push those discoveries further away than ever—not by directly canceling the mission but by abandoning the fuel needed to pull it off.

The technology in question, known as radioisotope power systems (RPS), is an often overlooked element of NASA’s budget that involves turning nuclear fuel into usable electricity. More like a battery than a full-scale reactor, RPS devices attach directly to spacecraft to power them into the deepest, darkest reaches of the solar system, where sunlight is too sparse to use. It’s a critical technology that has enabled two dozen NASA missions, from the iconic Voyagers 1 and 2 now traversing interstellar space to the Perseverance and Curiosity rovers presently operating on Mars.
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This is a sentiment I have seen elsewhere...at least one individual at Space News hated the thought of *any* tax dollars going to science.

Even Newt Gingrich believed in Americans returning to the Moon.

It isn't just religious zealots --but Grover Norquist types.

This I counter with saying "Thank God for Pork" or these villains would kill EVERYTHING.

I love old issues of POPULAR MECHANICS...and not just for wild ideas of the future.

One article talked about widespread infrastructure somewhere in the frozen north.

Today's poison pens would call it a road to nowhere--where the Greatest Generation was proud of how their tax dollars promoted progress.

We have got to get that mindset back.

Both cost-cutters and the worst of the Greens have killed the can-do atmosphere...each zealot in his own way. Bipartisan stupidity at its worst.
 
NASA’s acting chief calls for the end of Earth science at the space agency - Ars Technica

Relevant quotes:

During this appearance, Duffy talked up NASA's plans to establish a permanent presence on the Moon and his push to develop a nuclear reactor that could provide power there. He also emphasized his desire to end NASA's focus on studying the Earth and understanding how the planet's surface and atmosphere are changing. This shift has been a priority of the Trump Administration at other federal agencies.
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He goes on to say:
"All the climate science, and all of the other priorities that the last administration had at NASA, we’re going to move aside, and all of the science that we do is going to be directed towards exploration, which is the mission of NASA," Duffy said during the appearance. "That’s why we have NASA, to explore, not to do all of these Earth sciences."
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The author of the story, ERIC BERGER, notes:
However, in abandoning Earth science, NASA would be violating the law that created the agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958.
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This article also references a 2023 Ars Technica article that looked at then recent polling regarding what the PUBLIC wanted NASA to do, and it is worth noting that the PUBLIC wants to prioritize asteroid protection AND Earth Science above exploration - those are the top two priorities according to surveys.

It likely won't matter whether Duffy becomes the official NASA Administrator or not, it is the anti-science stance of the Trump II Administration that will continue to push for this.
 
Flyaway said:
NASA’s acting chief calls for the end of Earth science at the space agency - Ars Technica

Relevant quotes:



He goes on to say:


The author of the story, ERIC BERGER, notes:


This article also references a 2023 Ars Technica article that looked at then recent polling regarding what the PUBLIC wanted NASA to do, and it is worth noting that the PUBLIC wants to prioritize asteroid protection AND Earth Science above exploration - those are the top two priorities according to surveys.

It likely won't matter whether Duffy becomes the official NASA Administrator or not, it is the anti-science stance of the Trump II Administration that will continue to push for this.
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This is clearly something right out of the Heritage Foundation's treasonous Project 2025 and I can see the fossil-fuel industry as a major faction pushing for the end of NASA's Earth science programmes as for Sean Duffy he needs to be given the boot as NASA administrator ASAP!
 
It’s bonkers to me as it shows an ignorance of the agency’s history as from the get go NASA has done both human exploration and science. I mean the Mariner, Pioneer and Voyager programs were all in hand as well as Mercury, Gemini and Apollo. Let alone the various earth science missions.

Also you had the Surveyor series of unmanned science missions to the moon before the actually manned landings.

I mean heck many of the early astronauts, the ones not already versed in science, were taught science to better do their jobs.
 
publiusr said:
They are trying to kill NOAA too.
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That's probably partly motivated by Trump's petty spite, remember back in the first Trump administration when Trump had been publicly caught out tampering with a NOAA hurricane forecast using a Sharpe (Which turns out to be a federal felony).
 
stever_sl said:
That with 9 children, he ought to be more concerned with protecting their future instead of jumping on antiscience conspiracy theories that actively harm the planet.
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What future are you talking about since we no longer have children in the West?
 
But excuse me, wouldn't all the cuts made to DEI programs, climate change research, and other things unrelated to space, in theory be positive?
 
What a surprise? The whole Trump regime is staffed by deeply incompetent members who are assigned roles which their personal beliefs directly conflict with and prevent them from executing that agencies directives. The whole executive branch is a joke and has been since day one. Just think about the sheer stupidity of DOGE and their supposed effort to "save" money. Everything this American administration does is to demean and abuse their perceived adversaries to the point they treat average American's who have served their country for years like enemies of the state. What a fucking embarrassment!

Hopefully my post doesn't get shadow banned for calling these jackboot cocksuckers out for being what they are; a bunch of proto-fascists. Wouldn't want my "political" commentary to upset some MAGA douchebag.
 
SlothmanAllen said:
What a surprise? The whole Trump regime is staffed by deeply incompetent members who are assigned roles which their personal beliefs directly conflict with and prevent them from executing that agencies directives. The whole executive branch is a joke and has been since day one. Just think about the sheer stupidity of DOGE and their supposed effort to "save" money. Everything this American administration does is to demean and abuse their perceived adversaries to the point they treat average American's who have served their country for years like enemies of the state. What a fucking embarrassment!

Hopefully my post doesn't get shadow banned for calling these jackboot cocksuckers out for being what they are; a bunch of proto-fascists. Wouldn't want my "political" commentary to upset some MAGA douchebag.
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Extremely well put, unfortunately.
 
stever_sl said:
Our demographics are better than China's for example, or Japan's. Not sure what you're getting at here. "Future" for the planet, all people everywhere.
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If you're going to turn a NASA budget discussion into a general anti-Trump discussion, you can do without it.
 
Lc89 said:
If you're going to turn a NASA budget discussion into a general anti-Trump discussion, you can do without it.
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Do without ***WHAT*** exactly/precisely, Lc89??? I cannot help but note that while I ***PROUDLY*** post under my given birth name (and please, by all means, google me online, including my professional aerospace accomplishments, e.g. on LinkedIn!), you use a gibberish random four character alphanumeric code to timidly hide your identity - are you really ***THAT*** ashamed to be a Trumper??? But I can understand...
 
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Lc89 said:
If you're going to turn a NASA budget discussion into a general anti-Trump discussion, you can do without it.
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I'm not sure how talking about demographics has anything to do with Trump one way or the other. As for turning the thread into a general anti-Trump discussion, that happened long before I jumped in anyway. :)
 
martinbayer said:
Do without ***WHAT*** exactly/precisely, Lc89??? I cannot help but note that while I ***PROUDLY*** post under my given birth name (and please, by all means, google me online, including my professional aerospace accomplishments, e.g. on LinkedIn!), you use a gibberish random four character alphanumeric code to timidly hide your identity - are you really ***THAT*** ashamed to be a Trumper??? But I can understand...
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Ah, the Gavin Newsom Strategy. Almost as good as the classic Tim Walz tactic of rightfully calling them weird. Project 2025 is weird.
 
martinbayer said:
Do without ***WHAT*** exactly/precisely, Lc89??? I cannot help but note that while I ***PROUDLY*** post under my given birth name (and please, by all means, google me online, including my professional aerospace accomplishments, e.g. on LinkedIn!), you use a gibberish random four character alphanumeric code to timidly hide your identity - are you really ***THAT*** ashamed to be a Trumper??? But I can understand...
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There are people here on this post who have repeatedly commented on how stupid Trump is. And am I the problem? Has this enriched the Thread?
 
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