---
title: "The White House Is Trying to Shut Down NASA’s Last Mars Rover"
description: "U.S. President Trump’s proposed 2021 budget could spell doom for the country’s Mars exploration missions. It’s an unusual move for a President who repeatedly urged NASA to send a crewed mission to Mars and even offered the space agency unlimited funding to do so. But now, the budget cuts would cripple several […]"
date: "2020-04-30"
modified: "2020-04-30"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/white-house-proposes-shutting-down-last-mars-rover"
categories:
  - "Astronomy"
  - "Mars"
  - "Science & Energy"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "financial"
  - "mars"
  - "NASA"
  - "rover"
  - "space"
  - "the digest"
---

# The White House Is Trying to Shut Down NASA’s Last Mars Rover

![The White House's 2021 budget would cripple NASA's ongoing and future Mars missions. It would also mean shutting down the Curiosity rover.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/white-house-proposes-shutting-down-last-mars-rover.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: NASA\</em\>*

## Pack It Up

U.S. President Trump's proposed 2021 budget could spell doom for the country's Mars exploration missions, including its last Mars rover.

It's an unusual move for a President who has [repeatedly urged](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/trump-moon-tweet-nasa>) NASA to send a crewed mission to Mars — and even offered the space agency [unlimited funding](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/trump-offered-nasa-unlimited-budget-mars>) to do so.

But the proposed budget cuts would debilitate several ongoing missions, *[Scientific American ](<https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/mars-needs-money-white-house-budget-could-prompt-retreat-from-red-planet/>)*[reports](<https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/mars-needs-money-white-house-budget-could-prompt-retreat-from-red-planet/>), and would even mean shutting down the iconic rover Curiosity, which has been exploring Mars since 2012.

## Difficult Decisions

Many scientists responded to the budget with dismay. NASA Planetary Science Division director Lori Glaze, however, took a pragmatic view.

"Last year required many difficult decisions: invest in the future, continue what we’ve been doing or find some balance in between," Glaze told *SciAm*. "All strong organizations do this. Mars exploration is no different."

## Punitive Measures

But other experts are more cynical. George Washington University space historian and policy researcher John Logsdon told *SciAm* that the budget cuts were meant to punish NASA for going over budget on its Perseverence mission, which will attempt to land a new rover on Mars in 2021 and eventually return soil samples to Earth.

"It would be really shortsighted if that penalty undercut the growing momentum toward finally moving forward on a Mars Sample Return effort," Logsdon told *SciAm*. "There has to be a better way of enforcing cost control on NASA’s science efforts without jeopardizing their reason for existence."

**READ MORE:** [Mars Needs Money: White House Budget Could Prompt Retreat from Red Planet](<https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/mars-needs-money-white-house-budget-could-prompt-retreat-from-red-planet/>) \[*Scientific American*\]

**More on Trump and Mars:** *[Trump Offered NASA an Unlimited Budget it it Sent Humans to Mars](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/trump-offered-nasa-unlimited-budget-mars>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)