Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: Well, NASA is caught in the crosshairs of the Trump
Speaker 2: Administration's proposed buzzer cuts. Scientists and space advocates scrambling to
Speaker 2: save the organization from a potential forty seven percent slash
Speaker 2: in funding, with eighty five percent of staff furlough amid
Speaker 2: the government shutdown, all while the President considers reviving fintech
Speaker 2: billionaire Jared Isaacman's nomination to lead NASA.
Speaker 3: Joining me now is.
Speaker 2: A familiar face fighting against this bill. Nye, the science guy.
Speaker 2: He is the CEO at the Planetary Society.
Speaker 3: Bill.
Speaker 2: Fantastic to have you with us. Of course, we had
Speaker 2: Monday's Day of Action. You played a strong part in
Speaker 2: organizing that. Tell us about what the reception has been
Speaker 2: like from the Trump administration from Congress in trying to
Speaker 2: push back against some of these proposed.
Speaker 3: Well, Congress has been great.
Speaker 4: So both the Senate and House have pushed back, rejecting
Speaker 4: virtually all of the proposed cuts. So twenty percent overalled
Speaker 4: in NASA and forty almost half to NASA Science. And
Speaker 4: if you cut NASA Science in half, you pretty much
Speaker 4: end it. So what the expression is extinction? Level for science.
Speaker 4: And so the reason this matters is every dollar you
Speaker 4: spend with NASA, it goes into the economy about a
Speaker 4: factor of three that it it in yours to a
Speaker 4: benefit about three x of what you put in.
Speaker 3: And then the other thing.
Speaker 4: Everybody, you guys were talking about China and our relationship
Speaker 4: to China. The Chinese China National Space Administration rather is
Speaker 4: doing amazing things. They have some very smart people and
Speaker 4: they're exploring space for the same reasons we are.
Speaker 3: And I predict if nothing is done.
Speaker 4: There will be at least two more what I like
Speaker 4: to call spot Nick moments when the Western world wakes
Speaker 4: up to, oh, my goodness, this remarkable capability from Asia.
Speaker 4: And so they're gonna land guys or gals on the
Speaker 4: Moon in twenty thirty four and a half years from now,
Speaker 4: and they will almost certainly send spacecraft to Mars to
Speaker 4: look for geologic samples rocks that may bear signs of
Speaker 4: ancient life, and they will bring them back around twenty
Speaker 4: thirty three. Meanwhile, with the cuts to NASA, none of
Speaker 4: that would happen here in the States.
Speaker 1: I am curious, and I like how you quantify the
Speaker 1: idea of sort of what the economic impact of NASA is.
Speaker 1: And I go back to your history, and particularly with
Speaker 1: some of the things that you've worked on, you were instrumental.
Speaker 1: I believe in working on some of the sundials that
Speaker 1: went onto a couple.
Speaker 3: Of instrumental See what he did there, instrumental. I got him.
Speaker 3: It's an instrument But talk a little bit about it,
Speaker 3: Bill and all.
Speaker 1: Seriously, I mean, talk a little bit about why that's
Speaker 1: important for the average person, because I think the average
Speaker 1: person looks at this and just thinks, Okay, we're just
Speaker 1: shooting stuff up into space just for you know, you know,
Speaker 1: just for giggles.
Speaker 4: Oh no, no, no, So everybody, we're having this conversation
Speaker 4: right now.
Speaker 3: Because of so called space assets, we.
Speaker 4: Would not be able to predict weather, we would not
Speaker 4: be able to have situational awareness for the military. We
Speaker 4: would not have satellite internet service, We wouldn't have any
Speaker 4: of these things without exploring space. Furthermore, everybody knows the
Speaker 4: expressions big bang, everybody knows black hole. These are a
Speaker 4: result of space exploration. And I predict it's not extraordinary.
Speaker 4: If we were to find evidence of life on another world,
Speaker 4: it would change this world. It would change the way
Speaker 4: each of us feels about being a living thing here
Speaker 4: in the cosmos, and so Furthermore, the cost of this
Speaker 4: exploration is very, very small, and compared to everything else
Speaker 4: the federal everything else in the federal budget the federal
Speaker 4: government spends money on. And then remind you, guys, other countries,
Speaker 4: other space programs are going full on organized efforts to
Speaker 4: do almost mission for mission right what the United States
Speaker 4: is planning to cut.
Speaker 3: It's really a remarkable time.
Speaker 4: But as I say, both the Senate and House have
Speaker 4: rejected the cuts. What we want them to do is
Speaker 4: that business of reconciliation and then get this, as they say,
Speaker 4: over the finish line, this legislation.
Speaker 2: Well, Bill, I'm curious to hear your thoughts on the
Speaker 2: idea that you could see private companies step in to
Speaker 2: fill the void that could be left behind if NASA
Speaker 2: is cut in half. I see you shaking your head.
Speaker 3: I'm going to give them mike to you. Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3: It's two different things.
Speaker 4: Sending rockets to low Earth orbit or even ferrying spacecraft
Speaker 4: to geosynchronous orbits and so on is one thing. There
Speaker 4: is no business case. Nobody's making money looking for evidence
Speaker 4: of life on Mars. This is a replica of the
Speaker 4: Mars sample tubes. These are rock samples that are on Mars.
Speaker 4: Some of them are in the belly of the rover Perseverance.
Speaker 4: Some of them are deliberately left on the surface where
Speaker 4: we could pick them up in case something goes wrong.
Speaker 4: There's no plan to bring those back. What's in those rocks,
Speaker 4: these so called leopard spots, may be evidence of ancient
Speaker 4: life which.
Speaker 3: Would have started on Mars. That would be extraordinary.
Speaker 4: All right, then, everybody, you may have heard the expression
Speaker 4: dark energy, dark matter. Nobody is quite sure what causes
Speaker 4: the galaxies to move the way they do.
Speaker 3: There is nobody making money.
Speaker 4: Nobody's cashing in on looking for where this dark matter,
Speaker 4: this gravity comes from. There's no business case to look
Speaker 4: for evidence of life on the ocean of Europa twice
Speaker 4: as much seawater as Earth, and a moon of Jupiter.
Speaker 3: Yet these discoveries can change the world. Do you think they'll?
Speaker 1: Bill and I know that the US has kind of
Speaker 1: been at the center of the space exploration for decades.
Speaker 3: Now, is it possible US invented it?
Speaker 1: We did, But is it possible now that we're going
Speaker 1: to see another country, whether it be China, India or
Speaker 1: someone else pick up that mantle and can that be
Speaker 1: beneficial still for the US or not.
Speaker 4: Well, I don't think it's what people want. I don't
Speaker 4: think most people in the United States, most US citizens,
Speaker 4: would be joyful that another space organization was able to
Speaker 4: put people on the Moon again without the US having
Speaker 4: a presence, or to put people to send spacecraft or
Speaker 4: other missions to these more distant destinations Jupiter, Mars, Europa, Titan,
Speaker 4: Moon of Saturn. Also, you guys, the plan now is
Speaker 4: just turn these spacecraft off.
Speaker 3: Just turn them off. I mean, we have spent at least.
Speaker 4: Twelve billion dollars on the spacecraft which you're flying right now,
Speaker 4: and in the case of Mars, we've spent about twenty
Speaker 4: three billion to find this place, to look for these
Speaker 4: rocks to bring them back.
Speaker 3: Talk about a waste of money. Yeah, just turning them
Speaker 3: off extraordinary.
Speaker 4: The idea is it's hard to imagine really at first,
Speaker 4: and that's why the Senate and the House have rejected
Speaker 4: these cuts and pushed back. As far as whose idea
Speaker 4: it was in the first place to cut NASSA in half,
Speaker 4: I'm not sure, because understand, the first Trump administration was
Speaker 4: all in on space.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they were.
Speaker 4: They created a massa budget going full on. Yeah, and
Speaker 4: something's happened second time around.
Speaker 1: Well, it'll be interesting to see. We have to get
Speaker 1: you back on because there is a bill on now
Speaker 1: trying to work its way through the committee that maybe
Speaker 1: could reinstate SELMA of that funding out all of it.
Speaker 3: Bill really appreciated.
Speaker 1: Bill Nye, of course, is the CEO at the Planetary Society,
Speaker 1: and of course many of us, of course very endearingly
Speaker 1: know him from his previous show Bill Nye as the
Speaker 1: science guy