Trump wants $1 billion for private-sector-led Mars exploration

By Sana Pashankar

US President Donald Trump wants to tap the private sector to pave the way for human missions to Mars in a proposal that closely aligns with the goals of Elon Musk.

The White House’s 2026 budget proposal, released late on Friday, calls for allocating more than $1 billion for Mars exploration, including a new NASA initiative called the Commercial Mars Payload Services Program (CMPS). Under the proposal, NASA would award contracts to companies developing spacesuits, communications systems and a human-rated landing vehicle to foster exploration of the Red Planet.

Trump’s proposed $18.8 billion NASA budget would cut the agency’s funding by about 25 per cent from the year before, with big hits to its science portfolio. The fleshed-out request on Friday builds upon a condensed budget proposal released earlier this month.

“We must continue to be responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars,” NASA Acting Administrator Janet Petro wrote in a letter included in the request. “That means making strategic decisions — including scaling back or discontinuing ineffective efforts.”

The new Mars scheme is modeled after NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program that has benefitted Intuitive Machines LLC, Firefly Aerospace Inc. and Astrobotic Technology Inc., though it has achieved mixed results.

According to the budget, the contract to land on Mars would build upon existing lander contracts. Musk’s SpaceX is already developing a version of its Starship rocket to take Americans back to the moon’s surface under the agency’s Artemis program. Musk laid out a grandiose vision for a sprawling settlement on Mars during a talk earlier this week with SpaceX employees.

Trump’s pick to run NASA, tech billionaire Jared Isaacman, told lawmakers the agency could pursue the moon and Mars in parallel.

The administration’s proposed cuts, particularly changes to NASA’s science portfolio, have generated criticism from people in the space industry and lawmakers, including from former Republican Congressmen like Newt Gingrich and Bob Walker. Isaacman himself said the science cuts wouldn’t be an “optimal outcome.”

The administration earlier revealed plans to phase out the Boeing Co.-built Space Launch System rocket and the Lockheed Martin Corp. Orion crew capsule, parts of which have been in development for years, after three flights.

Instead, the budget details a strategy for new, private sector-led trips back to the moon, which the White House said would minimize costs and reduce schedule risks. It would be modeled on a NASA program that helped to fuel development of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Northrop Grumman Corp.’s cargo-hauling Cygnus.

The budget proposal is likely to run into resistance from veteran members of Congress, like Texas Republicans Senator Ted Cruz and Representative Brian Babin, who have fiercely defended the current plans for going back to the moon.