NASA cut 420 million dollars to climate science, moon modeling and more

NASA has canceled contracts and grants worth up to $ 420 million following the guidance of the Trump Administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). CUCS will affect research projects and educational programs throughout the United States, but NASA will be close to confirming exactly which organizations are affected.

After DOGE, an independent task force led by the technical billionaire Elon Musk, announced the cuts, NASA confirmed the ament, but denied specific which programs were canceled. Casey Dreier in the Planetary Society, a non-profit organization based in California, compiled a list of the recently lost financing of the agency’s public grant database. NASA has since taken down the database and did not answer questions about the misfortune of the list.

Many of the cuts on Dreier’s list are in line with President Donald Trump’s skepticism about science and his administration’s aggressive targeting of its interpretation of programs for diversity, justice and inclusion (DEI).

Climate -related cancellations include a project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which uses satellite sensors to map the effects of extreme heat, air pollution and flooding on prisons. Another goal was the University of Oklahoma Research to develop digital twin simulations that predict the effects of flooding in tribal areas.

But it is unclear why NASA and support for other research, such as bio -engineered cells to investigate how space flying affects the human body or modeling of Howar dust, could contaminate future lunar tasks.

NASA Spokesson Bethany Stephens told New scientist This agency “optimizes its workforce and resources in accordance with the Department of Government Efficiency Initiatives”. DOGE has been pushing over the US government to cut back on funding or close Altether.

But cancellations of nails grants and contracts fly in the light of the “strict” review process that initially chose them as the “most scientific deserved proposals,” says Michael Battalio at Yale University. “Politics cannot and should not define what is scientifically worth studying on a par with individual grants,” says Battalio, who studies the atmospheres of Mars and Titan in preparation for future missions.

“The dei-related cuts are most disturbing me,” says Bruce Jakosky at the University of Colorado Boulder, a leading scientist on NASA’s stomach mission to march. “These grants are about reaching out to underrepresented groups and enslist that people have access to education and education – none of them seem to promote less qualified people over more qualified people.

E.g. Cut NASA financing into a conference hosted by the National Society of Black Physicists, a long-lasting non-profit organization that promotes the professional well-being of African American physicists and physics students. “We were told that reason to cancel the contract was to comply with the executive order of the president about DEI,” says Stephen Roberson, president of the National Society of Black Physicists. “We seem to appeal this decision and receive further clarification as to why our annual conference, where people at all races and academic levels present their scientific work, are considered DEI.”

New scientist reached out to researchers and organizations that appear to be affected, but with the exception of the National Society of Black Physicists, most people did not answer. The San Diego Air & Space Museum, which appeared on Dreier’s list, said its NASA financing for educational events still appears to be intact despite NASA’s database showing a change in the subsidy date. NASA did not respond to a request to confirm the status of this financing.