Space Policy
With Donald Trump now returning to the White House as the 47th president of the United States, NASA will get a new administrator. This role as well as other roles like the relationship between the Vice President and the National Space Council could determine how the U.S. approaches space policy and exploration over the next four years.
Under the last Trump Administration, there were major steps towards human space exploration like the push for the Artemis missions and sending NASA astronauts on commercial missions.
Casey Dreier, the chief of Space Policy at the Planetary Society said although there can be a shift in power with newly elected officials, sometimes space policy can continue throughout multiple terms.
“Artemis, in particular, I always like to emphasize that was the first lunar program that really survived a Presidential Transition since Apollo went from Lyndon Johnson to Richard Nixon in 1969,” Dreier said. “Arguably, you could even say that Nixon barely accepted it. He took the landings and then wound down the program so that pass off from one Republican administration to democratic was a very successful demonstration, again, of the smart, bipartisan policy that the people who worked for the first Trump administration established in terms of policy development.”
Dreier said having someone who is interested and passionate about space exploration also helps. When Mike Pence was Vice President, Dreier said he helped move those policies involving human space exploration forward. Now, Dreier believes the big question will be who is appointed to the major roles at NASA like the Deputy Administrator and the Executive Secretary of the Space Council.
“JD Vance is a very different person than Mike Pence in a lot of ways, and so far, has not expressed any sort of innate interest in space,” Dreier said. “’Does that mean he will develop it?’ That would be great, or show some hidden side, but we just really don't know who the individuals are. They tend to be rather late appointees, after you go through some of the major government agencies.”
Another relationship Dreier is keeping his eye on is between Elon Musk and the elected president. As Musk continues to push for more exploration via SpaceX, Dreier said he believes it is clear that Musk has become one of Trump’s favorite people.
“He is exerting quite a bit of influence, or at least input, into Trump himself,” Dreier said. “They seem to have a very positive and close relationship, and obviously Elon Musk really did a lot of work to get Trump reelected. Now you have this situation where you have not just the wealthiest person in the world, but the person who runs the most capable space company that has ever existed, very closely aligned with the President of the United States. Basically pitching, ‘what if we go to Mars in four years?’ Just let us do it.”
Cosmic phenomena captured by JWST
In 2021 the James Webb Space Telescope launched a mission to peer deeper into our universe and farther into our cosmic past.
From taking a glimpse into the atmospheres of exoplanets to capturing the formation of new stars, JWST data has re-shaped the way scientists study our universe and allowed the public to see a glimpse into the beauty and wonder of our cosmos.
Eric Perlman, a professor of physics and space sciences at Florida Tech, said one image that caught his attention is of what is commonly known as the “Question Mark” galaxy. A galactic cluster that not only looks like a question mark but is rich in cosmic phenomena.
“You have these multiple images of this galaxy that have been lensed to make them look like a question mark, and it's just visually, it's just amazing,” Perlman said. “So, gravity bends light, and what you're looking at is the effect of the gravity from all of these galaxies, and also from the gas that's in that cluster, and it's bending the light from this background galaxy that we call the question mark.”
When Hubble was launched in the 1990’s, Perlman said his generation were able to grow up seeing images captured deep into our universe for the first time. Now with JWST, Perlman said it’s a whole different generation growing up with these clear images as well as the people who first witnessed Hubble launch.
While both Hubble and the JWST have brought a community together of science enthusiasts, it’s a mutually beneficial relationship.
“Yes, you have millionaires and public figures that get interested in this, but without millions of people being interested in these images and the spectra in finding the answers to questions about the universe…those things just die, and it doesn't happen,” Perlman said
Aside from images, JWST is also capturing data that could help the world answer important questions like how life formed on our own planet.
The spectral signal from an exoplanet called Wasp, 107 B was captured by JWST and was able to look at the makeup of the exoplanet’s atmosphere.
“This is a taste of what's to come when we are trying to find out where there could be life in the universe, because we're looking for things like water and we're looking for organic molecules,” Perlman said. “Some of those things we're beginning to see some of those things in spectra like this. So that's just fascinating."
