Though SpaceX founder Elon Musk is understood for outspokenness and controversial feedback on his social media web site X, he has been comparatively restrained on the subject of US area coverage in recent times.
For instance, he has not often criticized NASA or its general purpose to return people to the moon by way of the Artemis program. Slightly, Musk, who has lengthy most well-liked Mars as a vacation spot for people, has roughly been a staff participant on the subject of the area company’s lunar-focused plans.
That is comprehensible from a monetary perspective, as SpaceX has contracts price billions of {dollars} to not solely construct a Human Touchdown System as a part of the Artemis program but additionally to provide meals, cargo, and different logistics providers to a deliberate Lunar Gateway in orbit across the moon.
However privately, Musk has been crucial of NASA’s plans, suggesting that the Artemis Program has been shifting too slowly and is just too reliant on contractors who search cost-plus authorities contracts and are much less interested by delivering outcomes.
Silent on Coverage No Longer
Through the previous 10 days, Musk has begun airing a few of these non-public ideas publicly. On Christmas Day, for instance, Musk wrote on X, “The Artemis structure is extraordinarily inefficient, as it’s a jobs-maximizing program, not a results-maximizing program. One thing fully new is required.”
Then, on Thursday night, he added this: “No, we’re going straight to Mars. The moon is a distraction.”
These are definitive statements that instantly contradict NASA’s plans to ship a collection of human missions to the lunar south pole later this decade and set up a sustainable base of operations there with the Artemis program.
It might be one factor if Musk was simply expressing his opinion as a personal citizen. However since enjoying a big half within the election of Donald Trump as the following president of the US final yr, Musk has assumed an essential advisory function for the incoming administration. He was additionally partly liable for the anticipated nomination of personal astronaut Jared Isaacman to grow to be the following administrator of NASA. Though Musk isn’t directing US area coverage, he actually has a significant say in what occurs.
So What Does This Imply for Artemis?
The destiny of Artemis is a vital query not only for NASA however for the US industrial area trade, the European House Company, and different worldwide companions who’ve aligned with the return of people to the moon. With Artemis, the US is in competitors with China to determine a significant presence on the floor of the moon.
Based mostly upon conversations with individuals concerned in growing area coverage for the Trump administration, I could make some educated guesses about the best way to interpret Musk’s feedback. None of those individuals, for instance, would disagree with Musk’s assertion that “the Artemis structure is extraordinarily inefficient” and that some modifications are warranted.
With that mentioned, the Artemis program might be not going away. In any case, it was the primary Trump administration that created this system about 5 years in the past. Nonetheless, it could be much less well-remembered that the primary Trump White Home pushed for extra vital modifications, together with a “main course correction” at NASA.
“I name on NASA to undertake new insurance policies and embrace a brand new mindset,” then-vice president Mike Pence mentioned in Might 2019. “If our present contractors cannot meet this goal, then we’ll discover ones that can.” (Talking of the vp, it is unlikely that the Nationwide House Council can be reconstituted beneath JD Vance).
