{"id":19166,"date":"2025-01-22T07:28:27","date_gmt":"2025-01-22T07:28:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inuno.ai\/what-trumps-pledge-to-plant-the-u-s-flag-on-mars-really-means\/"},"modified":"2025-01-22T07:28:27","modified_gmt":"2025-01-22T07:28:27","slug":"what-trumps-pledge-to-plant-the-u-s-flag-on-mars-really-means","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inuno.ai\/what-trumps-pledge-to-plant-the-u-s-flag-on-mars-really-means\/","title":{"rendered":"What Trump\u2019s Pledge to Plant the U.S. Flag on Mars Really Means"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n<\/p>\n
During his Inaugural Address on Monday, President Donald J. Trump again promised to launch American astronauts to Mars.<\/p>\n
Seated nearby, Elon Musk, a political benefactor of Mr. Trump who founded SpaceX in the hope that it would one day be able to send colonists to Mars<\/a>, beamed with enthusiasm and offered two thumbs up. The gargantuan Starship rocket<\/a> that Mr. Musk\u2019s company is currently developing is meant for that task.<\/p>\n Mr. Trump left a number of specifics unsaid, including what the new initiative would mean for NASA\u2019s existing moon program, when astronauts would get to Mars and what other NASA programs might be cut to pay for it.<\/p>\n Mr. Trump has mentioned landing on Mars before. During a campaign rally in Reading, Pa., on Oct. 9<\/a>, he promised that this would occur during his presidency. \u201cWe will lead the world in space and reach Mars before the end of my term,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n He did not specify whether he meant landing American astronauts on Mars by Jan. 20, 2029, his last day in the White House, or whether just sending a prototype of the spacecraft that would take astronauts someday further in the future would suffice.<\/p>\n On Monday, he said that American astronauts would \u201cplant the stars and stripes on the planet Mars,\u201d but left out when.<\/p>\n Separately, Mr. Musk has not been shy in making his own proclamations. In September, he said that SpaceX would launch five Starships to Mars in 2026, albeit with no one aboard, to test their ability to survive re-entry through the thin Martian atmosphere and to arrive on the surface in one piece.<\/p>\n Earth and Mars pass relatively close to each other once every 26 months; the next time they will be in alignment will be in late 2026. If those landers succeeded, the first people would travel at the next opportunity, in 2028, Mr. Musk said.<\/p>\n Mr. Musk\u2019s timeline is thus possible, at least in terms of orbital dynamics. But many other questions remain to be answered.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. Trump did not mention the moon, even though the centerpiece for the space program<\/a> during his first term was returning astronauts to the moon as part of NASA\u2019s Artemis program. There are already signs that the new administration is planning major changes to Artemis.<\/p>\n One hint involves who is running NASA right now.<\/p>\n During a change of presidential administrations, NASA\u2019s top political appointees typically resign, and a career official, the associate administrator, fills in until a new administrator is confirmed by the Senate. Mr. Trump has nominated Jared Isaacman<\/a>, a billionaire who has flown two private astronaut missions on SpaceX rockets and who is a close associate of Mr. Musk.<\/p>\n On Monday, Mr. Trump said that Janet Petro, the director of NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, would serve as acting administrator. In doing that, he bypassed James Free, the third-highest official at NASA.<\/p>\n Mr. Free has been a defender of the current Artemis program.<\/p>\n \u201cJim Free made it clear that Artemis was perfect and didn\u2019t need to be changed,\u201d said James Muncy, a Republican space policy consultant who was not involved with the NASA transition for Mr. Trump. \u201cWhich is disqualifying to a president that wants to change things.\u201d<\/p>\n Crucial parts of the current Artemis program<\/a> include the Space Launch System<\/a>, a powerful but expensive NASA rocket, and the Orion capsule where the astronauts would travel between the Earth and the moon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Many in the space industry expect the incoming Trump administration to cancel S.L.S., and possibly Orion as well.<\/p>\n On Christmas, Mr. Musk wrote on X<\/a>, \u201cThe Artemis architecture is extremely inefficient, as it is a jobs-maximizing program, not a results-maximizing program. Something entirely new is needed.\u201d<\/p>\nWhat Trump has said about Mars<\/h2>\n
What happened to the moon?<\/h2>\n