Let's hope all of this wasn't for naught...

[asthfghl]

This is the chart of cosmic exploration in a nutshell (a very large one).

 

Let's hope all of this wasn't for naught... Although it probably won't come to that, by the looks of it.

Surprisingly, as hostile to the idea of countering climate change as he may have been, there are no indications that Trump would scrap (or neglect) scientific research anywhere near the way Bush Jr did. Sure, he may work to accelerate the transition process to a more private-sector orientated space exploration, which is in a sense what should have been done a long time ago.

Neil de Grasse Tyson has argued for a while that the more trivial form of near-Earth space flight missions should be carried out by the private sector, being the more reliable and less risky segment of space exploration. And the public sector should focus on cutting-edge exploration, because it is not profitable for business but tends to drive scientific and technological progress in the long run. That makes a lot of sense.

Trump may inadvertently be moving into the right direction on this one, even if for the wrong reasons.