NASA Orion test launch.
President Barack Obama's new budget released this week sets aside $18 billion for NASA. How much of that proposal becomes reality depends on negotiations with a hostile Congress, but here's what that big number would mean if Obama gets his way.
First, and perhaps most excitingly, is Europa, the moon of Jupiter that may hide an ocean of liquid water beneath its surface. The President's budget includes a full mission to this moon of Jupiter under the $5.3 billion allotted to planetary sciences. Already $100 million is going toward the planned Europa mission (which may include a lander), with NASA requesting $30 million for 2016.
An additional $411 million will go toward Mars exploration, including the Curiosity and Opportunity rovers, the Mars MAVEN orbiter, as well as the planned Mars 2020 rover. New Frontiers, the program that includes the current New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Juno mission to Jupiter, will get $259 million, much of it going toward the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample retrieval.
NASA's three big-ticket projects—the James Webb Space Telescope, the Orion capsule, and the Space Launch System deep space rocket—are all fully funded under Obama's budget. A full $620 million would go toward Webb in 2016, with a launch date set for 2018. The Orion capsule would see $1.1 billion in 2016, and SLS $1.36 billion, paving the way for NASA's future deep space exploration efforts.
Commercial spaceflight efforts will be allotted $1.24 billion under the proposal. This includes NASA funding to Boeing and SpaceX, the companies it wants to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station on privately built vehicles starting in 2017. The ISS itself will get $3.1 billion.
Though not a specific line item, the agency outlined the Asteroid Redirect Missions preparation falling under the $234 million directed to Advanced Exploration Systems, which also provides funding for other future space technologies. NASA would get $1.9 billion for Earth science, something that could prove contentious in Congress given the number of anthropogenic climate change deniers on Capitol Hill.
Will the President get his way when Congress has to approve NASA's budget. Many Republicans are generally supportive of NASA—Rep. John Culberson of Texas, for instance, has been a vocal proponent of a Europa mission. But expect projects that seem far out—like the Asteroid Redirect Mission—or that fund climate research to prove more contentious.