For 20 years in a row, a fleet of five orbital spacecraft has been connecting Mars with Earth. The network includes NASA’s Odyssey, MRO, and MAVEN spacecraft, as well as the European Space Agency’s Mars Express and ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter. This space highway not only helped create a detailed map of the surface of the Red Planet but also remains vital for ensuring stable communication between Mars rovers and NASA, which are millions of kilometers away. Now this important system faces budget cuts, despite ambitions to send people to the Red Planet.
Shadows of budgetary scissors
However, the future of the network is now under threat. The White House’s proposed NASA budget for 2026 calls for a $6 billion cut compared to 2025. Although the administration claims that manned missions to the Moon and Mars are a priority, the budget for planetary sciences has taken the brunt of the cuts. It is expected to decrease from $2.7 billion to $1.9 billion. However, manned programs will receive an additional $647 million.
These cuts could lead to the termination of funding for three orbiting spacecraft in the network — two from NASA and one from ESA. This will significantly reduce the capacity of the space internet. Such actions are cause for concern: future complex manned missions will require reliable and powerful communications, not a weakening of them.
Commercial or government support?
The administration is probably counting on commercial solutions. NASA is already exploring proposals for new communication networks around Mars, including SpaceX’s MarsLink project, which is similar to Starlink but around the Red Planet. An upgrade of the communications system will also be necessary to support the colonists on Mars.
However, experts believe thatNASA needs more funding at this stage to support critical infrastructure, rather than dismantling it. The threat to the Martian internet calls into question the realism of very ambitious plans for humans on the Red Planet.
Earlier, we reported on how Elon Musk suggested that humanity could survive the death of the Sun on Mars.
According to Forbes
