Saturday, September 16 2023 | 12:43 WIB
Herman / HE
Jakarta, Beritasatu.com – The last successful story of a human landing mission on the moon occurred in 1972 or 50 years ago. After that, no astronaut has ever landed on the moon again. What caused it?
Reporting from Business Insider, Saturday (16/9/2023), there are various factors that influence it, one of which is related to political risk. Jim Bridenstine, a former NASA administrator who led the space agency during Donald Trump’s administration, said it was not scientific or technological obstacles that prevented the United States (US) from returning to the moon early.
“If it weren’t for political problems, we might already be on the moon right now. It’s precisely political problems that are hampering this progress. This project takes a long time and costs a lot of money,” said Bridenstine.
Many astronauts and other experts also think that one of the biggest obstacles in realizing this new mission is financial problems. Cost is a real hurdle in space programs, especially when humans are involved.
Apollo 11 astronauts planted a flag on the moon on July 20, 1969
In 2023, NASA’s budget will reach US$ 25.4 billion or around IDR 374.8 trillion at the current exchange rate of IDR 15,300, and the Joe Biden administration has asked Congress to increase it to US$ 27.2 billion in 2024 or around IDR 416.1 trillion. While this figure may seem large, it must be remembered that the budget will be divided among NASA’s various ambitious divisions and projects, including the James Webb space telescope, the giant rocket project known as the space launch system, as well as missions to the sun, Jupiter, Mars, the asteroid belt, the Kuiper belt, and the edge of the solar system.
On the other hand, the US defense budget in 2023 will reach around US$ 858 billion. By this comparison, NASA’s budget is much smaller, even compared to the past.
Apollo 7 astronaut Walter Cunningham said in his 2015 congressional testimony that in 1965, the portion of the federal budget allocated to NASA peaked at around 4%. Meanwhile, in 2023, NASA’s budget will only be around 0.5% of total US spending, according to a report from Planetary Society.
2023-09-16 05:43:07
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