The naming of Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy as interim NASA administrator was as a lot of a shock as was President Trump’s withdrawal of his nomination of Jared Isaacman to the identical publish.
So, how is Duffy doing, making an attempt to convey the house company out from its summer season of discontent?
Duffy has been spending a variety of his time boosting the Artemis program, designed to return astronauts to the moon and ultimately ship them to Mars.
On the social media platform X, he posted that he “spoke with the good leaders of our mission directorates” and the consensus was “America MUST dominate house and our important moon mission, #ARTEMIS, have to be as recognized & supported by America simply as Apollo was!”
He completed saying he was “fired up and able to launch.”
Duffy repeated his advocacy of the Artemis program on the Fox News show Hannity. He famous that Artemis would proceed in three phases: a return to the moon, establishing a lunar base or outpost and crewed expeditions to Mars.
Contemplating how nicely the Artemis program polls, Duffy is pursuing a sound political technique. The trick is that the steps he laid out need to occur on a smart schedule. Thankfully, Artemis II, the crewed journey across the moon, is slated to happen early in 2026.
Alternatively, science journalist Robert Zimmerman gave Duffy the back of his hand for stating on Hannity that Artemis III, the following moon touchdown, remains to be a go for 2027. Contemplating the issues the SpaceX Starship has been having, few folks consider that date is legitimate. Nonetheless, SpaceX’s Gwynne Shotwell has assured Duffy that it is. We’ll see.
According to Politico, Duffy has known as for a 100-kilowatt nuclear reactor to be deployed on the moon by 2030, to offer energy for a lunar base.
He has additionally known as for the acceleration of economic house stations that may exchange the Worldwide House Station when it ends its operational life. The brand new plan promises to be very disruptive.
Duffy additionally had a gathering on the Kennedy House Heart along with his Russian counterpart. Reuter’s Joey Roulette said the assembly mentioned “‘cooperation on lunar applications’ and ‘joint exploration of deep house’ in addition to ISS cooperation,” in accordance with Roscosmos.
Worldwide House Station cooperation is a pure subject of dialog between the top of NASA and the top of Roscosmos.
The USA and Russia have been companions on the house station since early within the Clinton administration. The partnership exists in its personal little universe, separate from the tensions between the 2 international locations led to by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Ars Technica reports that Bakanov introduced up the potential for utilizing Russian {hardware} to deorbit the ISS in 2030. Clearly, he was trying to make the most of the feud between Trump and Elon Musk, whose SpaceX at the moment has the contract. Roscosmos would get a much-needed infusion of money if it changed SpaceX.
Nonetheless, the point out of cooperation on lunar applications and the joint exploration of deep house catches the attention. Russia has turned down participation within the Artemis program, preferring to be a associate on China’s deliberate International Lunar Research Station.
Russian participation in Artemis was probably dangled as an enticement for Putin to make peace in Ukraine on phrases wanting conquering your complete nation. It could additionally function a solution to separate Russia from China, one thing that has been a middle of American overseas coverage for the reason that Nixon administration.
Lastly, Duffy has to take care of the NASA spending battle that has developed between the Congress and the White Home.
A gaggle of Democratic senators sent him a letter expressing their issues not solely in regards to the deliberate cuts for the following fiscal 12 months however plans to rescind some allotted cash for the present fiscal 12 months. They’re additionally involved a couple of deliberate buyout program that may lower 4,000 NASA civil servants.
The Senate and House are concerned about NASA’s plans to implement the spending plans within the “huge, stunning invoice.” They’re demanding solutions by Sept. 1.
Duffy will want the diplomatic expertise of a Henry Kissinger to reconcile the positions of the 2 branches over NASA funding. As ready as he’s, the scenario cries out for a everlasting NASA administrator, somebody with the respect of each President Trump and the Congress.
In any other case, the chaos will simply proceed, hampering the house company’s potential to meet its mandate to discover house, for the betterment of america and all humankind.
Mark R. Whittington, who writes regularly about house coverage, has revealed a political research of house exploration entitled “Why is It So Hard to Go Back to the Moon?” in addition to “The Moon, Mars and Beyond” and, most not too long ago, “is America Going Back to the Moon” He blogs at Curmudgeons Corner.