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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.

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Speaker 2: Well, NASA is caught in the crosshairs of the Trump

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Speaker 2: Administration's proposed buzzer cuts. Scientists and space advocates scrambling to

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Speaker 2: save the organization from a potential forty seven percent slash

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Speaker 2: in funding, with eighty five percent of staff furlough amid

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Speaker 2: the government shutdown, all while the President considers reviving fintech

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Speaker 2: billionaire Jared Isaacman's nomination to lead NASA.

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Speaker 3: Joining me now is.

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Speaker 2: A familiar face fighting against this bill. Nye, the science guy.

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Speaker 2: He is the CEO at the Planetary Society.

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Speaker 3: Bill.

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Speaker 2: Fantastic to have you with us. Of course, we had

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Speaker 2: Monday's Day of Action. You played a strong part in

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Speaker 2: organizing that. Tell us about what the reception has been

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Speaker 2: like from the Trump administration from Congress in trying to

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Speaker 2: push back against some of these proposed.

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Speaker 3: Well, Congress has been great.

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Speaker 4: So both the Senate and House have pushed back, rejecting

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Speaker 4: virtually all of the proposed cuts. So twenty percent overalled

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Speaker 4: in NASA and forty almost half to NASA Science. And

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Speaker 4: if you cut NASA Science in half, you pretty much

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Speaker 4: end it. So what the expression is extinction? Level for science.

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Speaker 4: And so the reason this matters is every dollar you

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Speaker 4: spend with NASA, it goes into the economy about a

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Speaker 4: factor of three that it it in yours to a

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Speaker 4: benefit about three x of what you put in.

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Speaker 3: And then the other thing.

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Speaker 4: Everybody, you guys were talking about China and our relationship

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Speaker 4: to China. The Chinese China National Space Administration rather is

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Speaker 4: doing amazing things. They have some very smart people and

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Speaker 4: they're exploring space for the same reasons we are.

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Speaker 3: And I predict if nothing is done.

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Speaker 4: There will be at least two more what I like

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Speaker 4: to call spot Nick moments when the Western world wakes

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Speaker 4: up to, oh, my goodness, this remarkable capability from Asia.

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Speaker 4: And so they're gonna land guys or gals on the

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Speaker 4: Moon in twenty thirty four and a half years from now,

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Speaker 4: and they will almost certainly send spacecraft to Mars to

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Speaker 4: look for geologic samples rocks that may bear signs of

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Speaker 4: ancient life, and they will bring them back around twenty

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Speaker 4: thirty three. Meanwhile, with the cuts to NASA, none of

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Speaker 4: that would happen here in the States.

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Speaker 1: I am curious, and I like how you quantify the

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Speaker 1: idea of sort of what the economic impact of NASA is.

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Speaker 1: And I go back to your history, and particularly with

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Speaker 1: some of the things that you've worked on, you were instrumental.

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Speaker 1: I believe in working on some of the sundials that

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Speaker 1: went onto a couple.

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Speaker 3: Of instrumental See what he did there, instrumental. I got him.

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Speaker 3: It's an instrument But talk a little bit about it,

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Speaker 3: Bill and all.

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Speaker 1: Seriously, I mean, talk a little bit about why that's

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Speaker 1: important for the average person, because I think the average

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Speaker 1: person looks at this and just thinks, Okay, we're just

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Speaker 1: shooting stuff up into space just for you know, you know,

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Speaker 1: just for giggles.

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Speaker 4: Oh no, no, no, So everybody, we're having this conversation

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Speaker 4: right now.

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Speaker 3: Because of so called space assets, we.

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Speaker 4: Would not be able to predict weather, we would not

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Speaker 4: be able to have situational awareness for the military. We

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Speaker 4: would not have satellite internet service, We wouldn't have any

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Speaker 4: of these things without exploring space. Furthermore, everybody knows the

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Speaker 4: expressions big bang, everybody knows black hole. These are a

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Speaker 4: result of space exploration. And I predict it's not extraordinary.

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Speaker 4: If we were to find evidence of life on another world,

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Speaker 4: it would change this world. It would change the way

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Speaker 4: each of us feels about being a living thing here

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Speaker 4: in the cosmos, and so Furthermore, the cost of this

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Speaker 4: exploration is very, very small, and compared to everything else

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Speaker 4: the federal everything else in the federal budget the federal

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Speaker 4: government spends money on. And then remind you, guys, other countries,

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Speaker 4: other space programs are going full on organized efforts to

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Speaker 4: do almost mission for mission right what the United States

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Speaker 4: is planning to cut.

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Speaker 3: It's really a remarkable time.

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Speaker 4: But as I say, both the Senate and House have

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Speaker 4: rejected the cuts. What we want them to do is

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Speaker 4: that business of reconciliation and then get this, as they say,

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Speaker 4: over the finish line, this legislation.

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Speaker 2: Well, Bill, I'm curious to hear your thoughts on the

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Speaker 2: idea that you could see private companies step in to

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Speaker 2: fill the void that could be left behind if NASA

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Speaker 2: is cut in half. I see you shaking your head.

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Speaker 3: I'm going to give them mike to you. Oh yeah, yeah.

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Speaker 3: It's two different things.

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Speaker 4: Sending rockets to low Earth orbit or even ferrying spacecraft

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Speaker 4: to geosynchronous orbits and so on is one thing. There

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Speaker 4: is no business case. Nobody's making money looking for evidence

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Speaker 4: of life on Mars. This is a replica of the

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Speaker 4: Mars sample tubes. These are rock samples that are on Mars.

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Speaker 4: Some of them are in the belly of the rover Perseverance.

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Speaker 4: Some of them are deliberately left on the surface where

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Speaker 4: we could pick them up in case something goes wrong.

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Speaker 4: There's no plan to bring those back. What's in those rocks,

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Speaker 4: these so called leopard spots, may be evidence of ancient

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Speaker 4: life which.

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Speaker 3: Would have started on Mars. That would be extraordinary.

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Speaker 4: All right, then, everybody, you may have heard the expression

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Speaker 4: dark energy, dark matter. Nobody is quite sure what causes

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Speaker 4: the galaxies to move the way they do.

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Speaker 3: There is nobody making money.

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Speaker 4: Nobody's cashing in on looking for where this dark matter,

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Speaker 4: this gravity comes from. There's no business case to look

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Speaker 4: for evidence of life on the ocean of Europa twice

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Speaker 4: as much seawater as Earth, and a moon of Jupiter.

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Speaker 3: Yet these discoveries can change the world. Do you think they'll?

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Speaker 1: Bill and I know that the US has kind of

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Speaker 1: been at the center of the space exploration for decades.

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Speaker 3: Now, is it possible US invented it?

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Speaker 1: We did, But is it possible now that we're going

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Speaker 1: to see another country, whether it be China, India or

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Speaker 1: someone else pick up that mantle and can that be

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Speaker 1: beneficial still for the US or not.

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Speaker 4: Well, I don't think it's what people want. I don't

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Speaker 4: think most people in the United States, most US citizens,

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Speaker 4: would be joyful that another space organization was able to

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Speaker 4: put people on the Moon again without the US having

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Speaker 4: a presence, or to put people to send spacecraft or

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Speaker 4: other missions to these more distant destinations Jupiter, Mars, Europa, Titan,

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Speaker 4: Moon of Saturn. Also, you guys, the plan now is

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Speaker 4: just turn these spacecraft off.

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Speaker 3: Just turn them off. I mean, we have spent at least.

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Speaker 4: Twelve billion dollars on the spacecraft which you're flying right now,

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Speaker 4: and in the case of Mars, we've spent about twenty

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Speaker 4: three billion to find this place, to look for these

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Speaker 4: rocks to bring them back.

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Speaker 3: Talk about a waste of money. Yeah, just turning them

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Speaker 3: off extraordinary.

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Speaker 4: The idea is it's hard to imagine really at first,

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Speaker 4: and that's why the Senate and the House have rejected

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Speaker 4: these cuts and pushed back. As far as whose idea

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Speaker 4: it was in the first place to cut NASSA in half,

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Speaker 4: I'm not sure, because understand, the first Trump administration was

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Speaker 4: all in on space.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, they were.

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Speaker 4: They created a massa budget going full on. Yeah, and

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Speaker 4: something's happened second time around.

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Speaker 1: Well, it'll be interesting to see. We have to get

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Speaker 1: you back on because there is a bill on now

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Speaker 1: trying to work its way through the committee that maybe

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Speaker 1: could reinstate SELMA of that funding out all of it.

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Speaker 3: Bill really appreciated.

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Speaker 1: Bill Nye, of course, is the CEO at the Planetary Society,

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Speaker 1: and of course many of us, of course very endearingly

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Speaker 1: know him from his previous show Bill Nye as the

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Speaker 1: science guy