Goodbye Space Force? What Joe Biden’s presidency means for space exploration
A fresh start for NASA?
Can we expect anything new? Biden has already pledged to sign executive orders that will undo most of the Trump administration’s work – in the same way thatTrump undid most of Obama’s work.
The biggest indication of change is Bridenstine stepping down. When he was appointed in 2018, it was something of asurprise to the scientific community– he had no scientific qualifications and had previously indicated that he had doubts about climate change (which he changed his mind about when accepting the role). Yet he has proved to bean able leaderof NASA.
On stepping down, he said he wanted to let somebody with a“close relationship with the president”take over. Who this might be is still a question, and will depend largely on the new president himself. Most heads of NASA have at least a degree in engineering or physics and, in the past, have headed a space center. This makesJody Singer(the director of Marshall Space Flight Center),Mark Geyer(the director of Johnson Space Center), orDennis Andrucyk(the director of Goddard Space Flight Center) potential candidates, as well as the current deputy administratorJames Morhard. The field is thought to be largely open, though.
Biden has made it clear that tackling the climate emergency is a priority. While this is likely to be focused on industrial pollution limits and renewable energy sources, it does suggest that space policy could be more focused on Earth observation missions, such as theGOES(Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite) program.
Potentially we could be looking at more satellites of this type; monitoring oil spills, deforestation, and carbon emissions. All of these possibilities are of course overshadowed by the financial crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. And, given that a sustained source of money to support long-term projects such as the Artemis program is vital to their success, it is probably a case of believing it when we see it.
Whatever the changes will be, it seems likely that there may be less funding for space missions. But, despite that, many scientists will bebreathing a sigh of reliefat the prospect of not having to fight the kind of anti-science tweetsthat we have seen from Trumpduring his time in office on topics ranging from Covid-19 and vaccinations to climate change.
This article is republished fromThe ConversationbyIan Whittaker, Senior Lecturer in Physics,Nottingham Trent UniversityandGareth Dorrian, Post Doctoral Research Fellow in Space Science,University of Birminghamunder a Creative Commons license. Read theoriginal article.
Story byThe Conversation
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