The former president told a rally in Wilmington, North Carolina, that the US would “lead the world in space” and hailed his decision to establish the military Space Force.
“I’ll talk to Elon [Musk],” he said. “Elon – get those rocket ships going!”
Trump’s decision to put a date on a potential trip to the Red Planet is hugely significant, given he changed US national policy in 2017 to make human space exploration a priority again.
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Australia is now a key player in the subsequent Artemis program, with the US space agency tasking the Australian Space Agency with creating a rover that will collect lunar regolith, or moon soil, that will eventually be turned into oxygen to support a permanent human base.
However, Artemis has been beset with delays during Biden’s presidency.
Earlier this year, for example, NASA announced the Artemis II mission to fly astronauts close to the moon would be pushed back from later this year to September 2025, while a human return would now target 2026.
The US space agency blamed a number of technical issues, including problems with the Orion spacecraft’s life support systems and heat shield.
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But within weeks of the revised timetable being announced, a string of senior figures argued even those dates were unrealistic at a key congressional committee.
Mike Griffin, who led NASA from 2005 to 2009, argued that while Artemis II’s mission to fly humans around the moon next year was “very doable”, taking astronauts to the lunar surface the following year wasn’t.
“I don’t think Artemis 3, the landing mission, is at all realistically scheduled,” he said.
George Scott, acting NASA inspector general, also argued the agency would “continue to be challenged on the schedule front” with Artemis III, while William Russell, director of contracting and national security acquisitions, added a 12-month gap between Artemis II and III wasn’t enough.
“One year is not a lot of time to do that learning,” he said.
Last year in Australia, the federal government granted two consortiums $4 million to provide a rover to NASA to support its Moon to Mars Mission.
ELO2 unveiled its first design in December last year, but rival AROSE only showed off its model in August. A decision is thought to be announced later this year.
It’s believed the regolith it will eventually collect can both become oxygen that humans could breathe or aid the production of rocket fuel necessary to support the launch of a rocket from the moon to Mars and beyond.
Adam Thorn
Adam is a journalist who has worked for more than 40 prestigious media brands in the UK and Australia. Since 2005, his varied career has included stints as a reporter, copy editor, feature writer and editor for publications as diverse as Fleet Street newspaper The Sunday Times, fashion bible Jones, media and marketing website Mumbrella as well as lifestyle magazines such as GQ, Woman’s Weekly, Men’s Health and Loaded. He joined Momentum Media in early 2020 and currently writes for Australian Aviation and World of Aviation.
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