The fiscal year 2018 budget blueprint released the morning of March 16 featured, as expected, a $54 billion boost in defense spending, but it also trims NASA’s budget by roughly 1 percent, according to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Mick Mulvaney.
Mulvaney told reporters March 15 the federal government’s overall budget would not add to the deficit, which he said would total $480 billion for FY ‘18. The additional $54 billion for defense, he said, would result in $54 billion in reductions elsewhere. Mulvaney said the President Donald Trump administration settled on the $54 billion figure as the Pentagon told the administration this is what it can spend in a effectively. Aerial view of the Pentagon, Arlington, VA
The State Department and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would take hits, Mulvaney said, with the State Department facing a 28 percent cut. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would get a 6 percent boost.
The budget blueprint was set to be released at 7 a.m. EDT March 16. This will not be a complete budget, Mulvaney said. There won’t be revenue projections, policy statements or anything on mandatory spending, which includes programs like Medicare and Social Security. Mulvaney said the blueprint is for only discretionary spending.
Mulvaney said the FY ‘17 budget request for the Trump administration, and a $30 billion supplemental request, would also come out March 16. He said the $30 billion would be for defense and border, though he didn’t elaborate.
Thought the NASA budget would take a roughly 1 percent hit, Mulvaney said many programs in the civil space agency’s budget would get a boost due to the president’s priorities. Conservatives have been hostile to NASA programs that cover climate change or environmental science, instead favoring space exploration-type programs similar to Apollo.
Mulvaney said one of the NASA missions will include a mission to a moon at Jupiter or Saturn. The Jupiter moon targeted is called Europa while the Saturn moon targeted is called Enceladus. Industry consultant Rand Simberg said March 15 experts believe there is the potential for life in the ocean under Europa’s ice and that both Europa and Enceladus likely have much more liquid water than Earth.
Experts, Simberg said, have also seen geysers in both Europa and Enceladus, giving them the belief that both moons have warm oceans with good potential for life. New Horizons, Simberg said, has proposed doing a similar mission at Enceladus, which would be harder because Saturn is further away from Earth than Jupiter.
Simberg said the Europa mission has been a long time goal of Rep. Frank Culberson (R-Texas) as the Houston-area lawmaker has proposed using the Space Launch System (SLS) to get there because it can get there quickly on a fast trajectory. Simberg said a Falcon Heavy could also be used to get to Europa.
Simberg said a Europa mission would probably be two separate trips: one with an orbiter and, potentially, one with a lander. He said the orbiter would go around Europa in orbit and analyze it with instruments without landing on the moon. Ultimately, Simberg said, scientists would like to not just have a lander, but a vehicle that can drill through the ice and drop a submarine in the ocean.
This mission of dropping the submarine in Europa’s ocean wouldn’t be funded first. Simberg said the likely mission to be funded in the FY ‘18 budget would be a scouting expedition as this would probably need to be done first before designing something that would contact the surface of Europa.
Simberg said one challenge with Europa, as opposed to Enceladus, is that Jupiter has one of the most severe radiation environments in the solar system. He said scientist want to figure out if there is sufficient shielding from the water to allow life to evolve on Europa without getting continually killed via radiation. Simberg said Enceladus doesn’t have this issue.
Culberson, in a September press release, said a surface lander would land on Europa in about 10 years.