United States President Donald Trump on Friday said that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration should focus on Mars instead of planning to send missions to the moon. He also appeared to suggest that the moon is a part of Mars, which led to ridicule online.
“For all of the money we are spending, NASA should NOT be talking about going to the Moon - We did that 50 years ago,” Trump tweeted. “They should be focused on the much bigger things we are doing, including Mars (of which the Moon is a part), Defense and Science!”
The tweet attracted derisive humour from users, who ridiculed his knowledge of astronomy. One user pointed out that Trump had, less than a month ago, praised NASA’s plans to send a mission to the moon.
NASA is preparing for its Artemis 2 program which will send a man and a woman to the moon by 2024, and “develop a sustainable human presence on the moon by 2028”, the space agency said on June 5. The space agency also said it is gearing up for a test of the system that will help keep astronauts safe when traveling to the moon.
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