http://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/ ... 2jJnT8.jpg"US President-elect Donald Trump is set to slash Nasa's budget for monitoring climate change and instead set a goal of sending humans to the edge of the solar system by the end of the century, and possibly back to the moon.
Mr Trump, who has called climate change a "Chinese hoax", is believed to want to focus the agency on far-reaching, big banner goals in deep space rather than "Earth-centric climate change spending".
According to Bob Walker, who has advised Mr Trump on space policy, Nasa has been reduced to 'a logistics agency concentrating on space station resupply and politically correct environmental monitoring'."
$1:
Mr Walker, a former congressman who chaired President George W. Bush's Commission on the Future of the US Aerospace Industry, told The Telegraph: "We would start by having a stretch goal of exploring the entire solar system by the end of the century.
"You stretch your technology experts and create technologies that wouldn't otherwise be needed. I think aspirational goals are a good thing. Fifty years ago it was the ability to go to the moon."
Nasa's climate change role in the firing line
This year Nasa's Earth Science Division received $1.92 billion in funding, up nearly 30 per cent from the previous year.
Its funding has gone up 50 per cent under President Barack Obama. At the same time Mr Obama proposed cutting support for deep space exploration by $840 million next year.
The money for earth sciences goes to projects like the Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System, a constellation of eight satellites intended to monitor surface wind speed on the oceans.
NASA reveals shocking rate of decline in Arctic sea icePlay! 01:01
Speaking hours after Mr Trump's election win Thomas Zurbuchen, Nasa's science administrator, defended the work. He said: “Nasa's work on Earth science is making a difference in people’s lives all around the world every day. Earth science helps save lives."
But Republicans have complained the agency that sent men to the moon should not be spending billions of dollars on "predicting the weather".
Will Trump send men back to the moon?
A man has not set foot on the moon since 1972 but there is a good chance a Trump presidency will lead to a return.
Under President George W. Bush's Constellation programme a trip back was planned in the 2020s, but Mr Obama cancelled it.
However, much of the Constellation equipment will be available and Mr Trump is receiving advice from several figures who are keen to launch a new lunar mission as a stepping stone to Mars. There is even a possibility men could be back on the moon by the end of a second Trump term...
More at link
CKA Moderator 
![[B-o]](./images/smilies/drinkup.gif "Drink up")
