Elon Musk’s dream of sending humans to Mars will become a greater priority under the newly elected U.S. President Donald Trump, revealing significant changes to NASA’s lunar program.
The Artemis program by NASA aims to utilize SpaceX’s Starship rocket to transport humans to the Moon, laying the groundwork for future Mars missions. However, the program is expected to shift its focus more towards the Red Planet under Trump’s administration, targeting an uncrewed mission there within this decade, according to sources familiar with the U.S. president’s space policy, as reported by Reuters on November 11.
SpaceX’s Starship launch system. (Photo: Reuters).
Choosing Mars as the destination with a spacecraft designed to carry astronauts is not only more ambitious than focusing solely on the Moon but also involves greater risks and costs. Musk, who jumped on stage at a Trump campaign rally last October wearing a shirt that read “Conquer Mars”, has donated $119 million to Trump’s campaign and successfully advocated for space policy during unusual times.
In September, weeks after Musk publicly endorsed Trump, Trump stated that the Moon is merely a launchpad for his ultimate goal of reaching Mars. “At the very least, we will have a more realistic Mars plan. You will see Mars become a target,” commented Doug Loverro, a former space advisor who led NASA’s exploration division during Trump’s presidency from 2017 to 2021.
According to sources, plans could still change as Trump’s cabinet finalizes in the coming weeks. Trump proposed the Artemis program in 2019 during his first term, and it remains one of the few initiatives still active under President Biden. Trump’s space advisory team aims to reform the program, which is perceived to have weakened in their absence.
Musk, who owns the electric vehicle company Tesla and the startup focused on brain chips Neuralink, also aims to cut bureaucratic red tape as a core tenet of his support for Trump. For the space industry, Musk’s desire to streamline procedures is likely to spur changes at the Federal Aviation Administration’s commercial space office, the agency overseeing private rocket launches, which Musk finds frustrating due to delays in developing SpaceX’s Starship system.
NASA under Trump will undoubtedly support fixed-price space contracts that assign greater responsibilities to private companies while scaling back programs that have become burdensome for Artemis. This could pose challenges for NASA’s only owned rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), which has cost $24 billion to develop since 2011. Delaying the program would be difficult as it could result in thousands losing their jobs and increase dependency on SpaceX.
