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posted by Fnord666 on Saturday October 20 2018, @11:02AM   Printer-friendly
from the what-would-Ian-Betteridge-say? dept.

Phys.org:

Should the Trump administration succeed in establishing a Space Force or something like it, the move may have serious consequences for NASA. Depending on its mission, the Space Force is likely to require launch capabilities for satellites and perhaps human missions. Although a Space Force may be able to purchase these services from companies like SpaceX, if they choose to develop an in-house launch system, they may duplicate already existing NASA efforts. Doing so would also likely cause a brain drain at NASA as in-house engineers and experts migrated to the Space Force with promises of new missions and new funding.

There is also a question of whether the Space Force may simply take over current NASA missions. In the wake of the Space Force announcement, the Trump campaign sent out an email to supporters asking them to vote on a potential logo. Although this was a fundraising maneuver, one of the "logos" was themed around Mars with the wording "Mars Awaits." Given that the overall mission of the Space Force remains unclear, there could be a push for human spaceflight efforts to be subsumed under a Space Force. NASA's recent failures in the development of the Space Launch System, or SLS, and the James Webb Space Telescope only further reinforce the image of a NASA spread too thin to accomplish major space endeavors.

Finally, NASA's budget is already quite low considering its mission: US$19.7 billion in 2017 with $19 billion requested for 2018. This represents less than 0.5 percent of the overall federal budget. A Space Force could feasibly take away funding from NASA, especially for the development of human spaceflight capabilities thus cannibalizing NASA's already low budget.

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  • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 21 2018, @01:20AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 21 2018, @01:20AM (#751535)

    Moonraker will show you how absolutely stupid a space force will be. Only a complete moron would think that was a good idea.

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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday October 21 2018, @02:03AM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Sunday October 21 2018, @02:03AM (#751542) Journal

    So we should watch a work of fiction in order to conclude that renaming the Air Force Space Command is a stupid idea. Sure thing.

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