Trump: Before going to Mars, America needs to fix its economy

Donald Trump hasn't spoken much about space on the campaign trail, but his campaign did provide some answers to a technical space organization, AIAA. (credit: DonaldJTrump.com)

US space policy has been anything but a prominent issue in the 2016 presidential election, falling far behind domestic and foreign policy issues, not to mention normal campaign antics like name-calling. Yet NASA consumes about 0.5 percent of the federal budget and about 2 percent of federal discretionary spending. Therefore, while NASA may not come up much during the campaign, the agency may nonetheless see big changes under a new president who reassesses how the government is spending its money.

Unfortunately we don't have much detail about what the likely Democratic and Republican nominees for president will do in terms of space policy. There have been a few passing references on the campaign trail. For example, Hillary Clinton said she "really, really" does support the space program. And Donald Trump, in response to a question about NASA's plan to go to Mars, said, “I love NASA” and “Space is terrific.” However, he then added, “Right now, we have bigger problems. You understand that? We’ve got to fix our potholes.”

The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics understandably sought deeper insight than this, and so it sent a list of 10 questions to Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton on the Democratic side, and Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and John Kasich on the Republican side. Only Sanders and Trump replied substantively to the questions, and because Sanders appears unlikely to be the Democratic nominee, we will focus on Trump's comments.