What is Donald Trump’s space plan for NASA? New President wants agency to search for alien life on Jupiter’s moon Europa
Distant moon is believed to have conditions needed to sustain lifeforms
COULD Donald Trump's presidency bring us closer to discovering alien life?
The President-elect's plans for space exploration was further solidified by his recent tweet to hail Astronauts that will fly on Space X and Boeing Spaceships.
The 45th President of the United States has said NASA should focus on exploring deep space - with a potential focus on Jupiter's moon Europa, perhaps the best place to find alien life near Earth.
The ocean-moon has a vast sea beneath its icy surface and in September NASA scientists found evidence of water vapour plumes erupting off its surface.
Speaking about the discovery William Sparks of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore said: “On earth life is found where there is energy, water, nutrients, so we have special interest in places that contains those conditions and Europa might be one of those places.”
Speaking before his election Donald Trump said: “I will free NASA from the restriction of serving primarily as a logistics agency for low Earth orbit activity… Instead we will refocus its mission on space exploration.”
Obama had told NASA to focus on sending humans to Mars in the 2030s - however the planet has undergone a billion-year drought and may be almost devoid of life-sustaining water.
The new President-elect has recruited former Republican congressman Robert Walker to help draft a plan for NASA.
The new plan is believed to include mining valuable minerals from the asteroid belt and visiting Europa.
Mr Walker and fellow space policy adviser Pete Navarro said: “Human exploration of our entire solar system by the end of this century should NASA’s focus and goal.
“NASA’s core missions must be exploration and science – and inspirational!”
Trump has also spoken about sending man back into space.
Speaking to Aerospace America in May he said: “If we are growing with all of our people employed and our military readiness back to acceptable levels, then we can take a look at the timeline for sending more people into space.”
NASA's Juno probe has been gathering information as it orbits Jupiter since July this year.
More recently in August 2018, Trump posted a celebratory tweet to laud NASA's first astronaut crews to fly on private spacecraft built by Boeing and SpaceX.
"NASA, which is making a BIG comeback under the Trump Administration, has just named 9 astronauts for Boeing and Spacex space flights," Trump wrote on Twitter. "We have the greatest facilities in the world and we are now letting the private sector pay to use them. Exciting things happening. Space Force!", he said..
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