“Those hours could have been spent analyzing and analyzing the data from these valuable missions,” Dreier said. “It caused a lot of unnecessary friction and unrest at a time when NASA is being told it must remain competitive with China and other countries in space.”
The budget is likely to be signed soon
The House of Representatives could vote on the Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies budget bill as early as this week, while the U.S. Senate could follow suit next week. President Trump is expected to sign the bill. It would then take effect immediately for the current fiscal year, which began on October 1.
The biggest casualty in NASA's science budget is the Mars Sample Return mission, a NASA-led effort to bring back rocks and soil from Mars for research in laboratories on Earth.
“As proposed in the budget, the agreement does not support the existing Mars Sample Return (MSR) program,” the budget document said. “However, the technological capabilities developed in the MSR program are critical not only to the success of future science missions, but also to human exploration of the Moon and Mars.”
While it doesn't provide details, the budget provides $110 million for something called the “Mars Future Missions” program, to support “radar, spectroscopy, access, descent and landing systems.”
Some also hope for future missions
NASA previously said it was halting the ambitious sample return mission because the projected cost was about $10 billion, with no specified return date for the samples.
Now it seems likely that the agency and its new administrator, Jared Isaacman, will have to develop a new strategy. This could involve sending humans to Mars, rather than bringing rocks from Mars back to Earth.
Unlike Trump's budget request, the science budget also keeps future missions, such as the DAVINCI probe to Venus, alive. It will also provide $10 million to continue studying the development of a Uranus orbiter, as well as $150 million for a flagship telescope to search for signs of life on nearby Earth-like planets called the Habitable Worlds Observatory.
