Trump’s NASA redesign: What to expect

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Now that Donald Trump is the new president of the United States, NASA and the US private space sector are in for a shake-up. Interestingly, Elon Musk will largely be at the helm, meaning SpaceX will likely benefit big time from Trump’s election.

It’s hard to predict exactly how things will unfold from here, but let’s take a look at what US spaceflight could look like under Trump.

Meanwhile, Musk and Jeff Bezos are both looking to make their space visions a reality. Who will win the race?

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AEROSPACE ENGINEERING SPOTLIGHT

Trump’s NASA redesign: What to expect

Donald Trump’s election as the 47th president of the United States will, clearly, have a massive impact on spaceflight. The president-elect just recently announced his candidate for the role of NASA Administrator. 

Jared Isaacman, who recently became the first private astronaut to perform a spacewalk, will be the new NASA chief. Isaacman flew with a crew of three others aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule when he performed the historic feat.

It certainly raises questions, and some will argue there’s a conflict of interest. Elon Musk has been in Trump’s ears since before the election. Now, the new NASA chief is one of SpaceX’s biggest individual customers. 

It’s a wild time for US spaceflight, and it’s only the beginning. Musk will also co-lead an advisory group called the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. This group will be tasked with cutting back billions, even trillions, in government overspending on inefficient agency expenses. NASA is likely to be downsized, and Elon Musk’s SpaceX will likely benefit.

Perhaps the worst offender when it comes to NASA overspending in recent years is the space agency’s non-reusable Space Launch System (SLS). SLS is estimated to cost $4.1 billion per launch, according to NASA’s Office of Inspector General. Musk is known to hate SLS. Now that he is in charge of cutting costs, it may be scrapped altogether.

The flip side to all of this is that, if Musk keeps his promise, we will see a rocket reach Mars within the next four years. In a CNN interview, Trump recently stated that Musk promised he would achieve this historic milestone during his presidency. Will we see a bold new frontier for NASA and private spaceflight, or is this all a cynical ploy to line Musk’s pockets even further? Only time will tell.

AERO BULLETIN

Elon Musk versus Jeff Bezos: Two opposing space visions

On realizing Donald Trump had won the election, Elon Musk posted the following, alongside a picture of Starship, on his social media platform, X: “The future is gonna be fantastic”.

In recent months, Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos has also courted favor with the new president. The traditionally left-leaning Washington Post, for example, which Bezos owns, did not endorse Kamala Harris.

Both Bezos and Musk have outlined ambitious plans for the future of space travel. Let’s have a look at their goals, and how they differ in key ways.

Elon Musk: Making life multi-planetary

Since the inception of SpaceX, Musk has declared that his goal was to make humanity a spacefaring civilization. 

The reason for this, according to Musk, is that we can’t have all of our eggs in one basket. If we were to face a civilization-ending even on Earth, having a plan B would keep humanity alive. 

The most obvious and accessible candidate for this plan B is a Mars colony. This will be no easy task, of course, as Mars’s surface is an inhospitable wasteland.

Jeff Bezos: Space stations over planet colonies

Bezos believes we should be looking to build giant cylindrical space stations instead of colonizing other planets. 

In a recent interview with podcaster Lex Fridman, Bezos said he would “love to see a trillion humans living in the solar system.” With that many people, we would have “1,000 Mozarts and 1,000 Einsteins” at any time, and the Solar System would be “full of life and intelligence and energy.”

However, Bezos argues this would only be possible with massive space stations. “Planetary surfaces are just way too small,” he said, adding that space stations could rotate to have normal Earth gravity.

Starship and Orbital Reef

The key technologies that will test Musk and Bezos’ visions are SpaceX’s Starship rocket and Blue Origin’s Orbital Reef space station. 

Starship is the world’s most powerful rocket, producing roughly 17 million lbs of thrust at launch. It will be fully reusable, drastically driving down the cost of successive launches. This last point is crucial, as it will make human spaceflight to Mars economically feasible.

Orbital Reef is Blue Origin’s upcoming space station. While it won’t be a giant cylindrical space station with artificial gravity, it could help to pave the way for Bezos’ future plans. The space station is advertised as a “space business park, ” including luxury living quarters and scientific laboratories.

Who will win the race?

Musk’s SpaceX has undeniably achieved a lot more than Bezos’ Blue Origin. The latter, for example, has yet to fly a rocket to orbit. However, it is quietly developing some incredibly exciting technologies, like the Blue Alchemist solar panels made out of only lunar soil.

Bezos’ vision is also a compelling alternative to the one Musk and, indeed, NASA has long championed as the conventional path forward. It may be easier to implement, as it would remove the need to tame Mars’ wild, inhospitable surface. We don’t see any clear winner, but it will be fascinating watching the journey unfold.