Tipsheet

President Trump Funds NASA in New Bill, Plans Mission to Mars

"I like to think big.  If you're going to be thinking anything, you might as well think big." -- Donald Trump

This is the mindset President Donald Trump exemplifies in the new NASA Transition Authorization Act which was signed into law on Monday.

The bill authorizes $19.5 billion in funding for NASA and sets the goal of sending humans to Mars.

NASA will be required to create ways to "extend human presence, including potential human habitation on another celestial body and a thriving space economy in the 21st Century.”

A research mission to study Jupiter’s icy moon Europa is also included in the bill.  The mass is slightly smaller than Earth's moon and is thought to have a global ocean of water in contact with a rocky seafloor.