The proposal faces a 58 percent funding shortfall in the bill that has this week passed through the US House of Representatives, bringing the hopes of a return mission that soon into doubt. Crucially, the requested budget for development of a lander which was $1.4 billion (£1.06 billion) has been slashed to just $600million (£457million) complicating plans for a 2024 landing – an idea first proposed by Vice President Mike Pence. The budget as a whole stressed a different set of priorities for the agency.
Speaking in testimony to congress this summer, NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine did stress that not receiving the funding for the lander would devastate the Artemis mission which was set to land the first woman on the Moon.
“It’s not dead, but it is in critical condition,” space policy expert John Logsdon of George Washington University told BuzzFeed News.
“You can’t land on the Moon without a lander.”
Support from US President Donald Trump seems increasingly fair-weather as he undercut his previous enthusiastic statements with a tweet in June complaining about the cost.
The Artemis mission loos increasingly unlikely to meet its 2024 deadline (Image: GETTY)
The mission would see the first woman on the Moon (Image: GETTY)
He said: “For all of the money we are spending, NASA should NOT be talking about going to the Moon – We did that 50 years ago.
“They should be focused on the much bigger things we are doing, including Mars (of which the Moon is a part), Defence and Science!”
This loss of support may be the reason behind the more restrictive budget.
As it stands, the budget still needs to gain senate approval and the agency is only able to spend 40 percent of its allotted budget until it submits a detailed report on all of Artemis’ expenses by February.
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Jim Bridenstine stressed what the lack of funding for a lander would mean to the mission (Image: GETTY)
The new budget represents a 5.3 percent increase for the agency, but requires NASA to rely on a very expensive Space Launch System rocket costing more than $2billion (£) per launch, to build a planned orbiting “Gateway” station in lunar orbit.
Commercial options preferred in earlier plans would be much cheaper and allow for more funding allocation elsewhere.
Mr Lodgson did however say if unable to go to the Moon, NASA would still develop the infrastructure to support future Moon landings and deep space missions.
Given the lack of desire, funding may now be reallocated from the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.
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NASA may now have to reallocate funding (Image: GETTY)
A desire was still expressed to develop infrastructure to support future Moon landings (Image: GETTY)
“The space agency is trying very hard to follow the direction the vice president gave them,” said Logsdon.
“The only real problem is the arbitrariness of the 2024 date.”
NASA had announced earlier this month that its Space Launch System rocket is the “most powerful rocket ever built in human history” and has completed its core stage Green Run tests.
Social media followers got an up-close look at the completed core stage during ‘Artemis Day’ on December 9, at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Mr Bridenstine said at the showing: “Thank you for being here on this very important day when we get to announce core stage complete for, in fact, the SLS rocket, the most powerful rocket ever built in human history.
“We are making significant progress.
“By the end of the year we’re going to be moving it out of the Michoud Assembly Facility.”
He continued: “We’re going to prove its capability.
NASA unveiled its completed core stage (Image: GETTY)
“We’re going to get it to the Cape and we’re going to be ready to launch American astronauts to the Moon again.
“And getting our first woman a next man to the South Pole of the Moon in 2024.”
The NASA administrator added: “This time when we go to the Moon, we’re going to go to stay, with the purpose of learning how to live and work on another world, so we can take that knowledge and information to Mars.”