Trump's Big CON: It's All About the Show, Mars Edition

"What we are reporting here isn't fake news. But it doesn't feel exactly like real news, either. It's in that foggy realm of Trump news in which everything is slightly ambiguous and wobbly and internally inconsistent and almost certainly improvisational and not actually grounded in what you could call “government policy.” What happened was: Trump called the International Space Station and talked to astronauts and, in passing, mentioned that he's going to send Americans to Mars, and soon, like really lickety-split. . .

It's hard to know if Trump was entirely serious (it's possible he was just joshin') or if he even has been briefed on the current NASA human spaceflight program. He may not know where Mars is. (Who does, really? You know it moves around a lot.)

[The] "NASA Transition Authorization Act of 2017, passed by Congress and signed by Trump this year . . . essentially keeps NASA on the same course it's been for years when it comes to human spaceflight — aiming at a mission to Mars with a 2033 launch. The first mission would be an orbital mission only; a later mission would attempt a landing.

NASA, understanding that Trump wants to do something big in the first term, has pondered adding astronauts to a test flight of the new Space Launch System rocket. There is very little chance that NASA is sending humans to Mars by 2024."

Read the Washington Post, Trump wants NASA to send humans to Mars pronto — by his second term ‘at worst’.

Read also the Washington Post, Will Trump echo JFK’s moonshot and vow to send humans to Mars?, which noted that "Trump understands the power of a big idea, and the leverage that can come from a cult of personality. He has been interested in John F. Kennedy’s vow to send humans to the moon."

Of course, it's a con job because he doesn't believe in science and his "budget calls for a seismic disruption in government-funded medical and scientific research. The cuts are deep and broad."

Read the Washington Post, Trump’s budget calls for seismic disruption in medical and science research.