The newly sworn in 45th president of the United States has big plans for Mars, and his election could herald a major shift in NASA's focus.
The election of Donald Trump to the highest office in the land has a lot of people wondering about what he’s going to do to NASA once in office, but one thing is for sure: Mars is likely to be high on the agenda. While the focus of NASA will likely shift majorly, it will mostly be away from climate change which has made up a big part of NASA’s mission under Obama.
However, the focus on a future manned mission to Mars is likely only to increase, especially now that he has developed a new close relationship with the formerly critical SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. Speculations abound that Trump and Musk are forming some sort of exploration partnership for a Mars mission, according to a Washington Post report that quotes anonymous sources.
And Trump and Musk have met on the past on the issue, so although Musk said Trump wasn’t the right man for the job, it appears the two have patched their differences. Musk wants to build a colony on Mars and send a manned mission there as early as 2024, and Trump’s presidency may be key to helping him do that.