Problem
Some of you may have heard of the NASA space initiative authorized by President Trump in 2017. The Artemis program is a tax-payer international human spaceflight program that has the goal of landing including landing the first woman and first person of color on the Moon under the Artemis program on the Moon, specifically at the lunar south pole region, by 2024 (now it is planned for 2025). The program is carried out predominantly by NASA, U.S. commercial spaceflight companies contracted by NASA (like SpaceX), and international partners including the European Space Agency (ESA), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the Italian Space Agency (ASI) the Australian Space Agency (ASA), the UK Space Agency (UKSA), the United Arab Emirates Space Agency (UAESA) the State Space Agency of Ukraine, and the Brazilian Space Agency (AEB). The long-term goal of Artemis is to establish a sustainable presence on the Moon, laying the foundation for private companies to build a lunar economy, and eventually sending humans to Mars.
The Biden administration is requesting $26 billion for NASA in its fiscal 2023 budget - a $2.7 billion increase over the enacted 2021 budget - and includes $7.5 billion for the Artemis moon program, a $1.1 billion boost the agency says will help keep the project on track for a lunar landing as early as 2025.
Another $1.5 billion would go development of new Human Landing System moon landers procured through competition following three initial Artemis landings using SpaceX vehicles, one unpiloted and two carrying astronauts.
Many however think NASA should put greater resources into Earth science programs, as part of a broader emphasis on climate change. They have called for "strengthening" NASA and NOAA Earth observation missions "to better understand how climate change is impacting our home planet." This would shift the focus towards Earth Science, and funding towards the planned focus on climate change, with expected growth in spacecraft and information systems related to understanding weather and climate change. This would mean also that Artemis would continue, but the schedule would be pushed further out into the future, possibly 2030 or later.
Would you support the current Administration to continue to push full funding for the Artemis program to meet its goal of 2025 of landing people on the Moon, or do you think NASA should shift funding to more climate-related missions?