Alternatives to Trump’s Wall – Space

After his inauguration, it wasn’t long before Donald Trump made the first steps towards keeping his “build a wall” promise. Clearly supported by millions of Americans, the wall is expected to cost around $31 billion – based on estimates by construction consultants Gleeds Worldwide. But how else could that money be spent?

Send the money into space

Trump has already got off on the wrong foot with NASA. If his stubborn denial of climate change wasn’t enough, he actually pledged to scrap NASA’s climate research altogether, labelling it “politicized science”. In response, some of NASA’s officials have reportedly set up “rogue” Twitter accounts to resist his censorship of information.

But if he could find it in himself to build bridges (instead of walls) with NASA, how far could his $31 billion wall budget go? The answer is pretty far.

Curiosity

Also known as the Mars Rover, Curiosity is a robotic rover approximately the size of car. It has been on Mars for over five years and its purposes include investigation of the climate, geology and environmental conditions on Mars. Originally on a two-year mission, the Rover’s schedule has been extended indefinitely, with a similar design planned for the Mars 2020 rover.

Costing around $2.8 billion, Curiosity will provide scientists with an abundance of information about our closest planetary neighbour. For comparison, Trump could produce 11 similar missions instead of funding his wall.

New Horizons

Further afield, New Horizons is a flyby mission launched by NASA in 2006. With an approximate cost of less than a billion US dollars, its purpose is to explore the only unexplored planet in the solar system. Though Pluto has now been reclassified as a dwarf planet, the probe flew within 12,500 km in July 2015.

New Horizons’ goal is to collect as much information about Pluto as possible. On its flyby it collected data on the atmospheres, surfaces and environments around the dwarf planet as well as its moons. This information will be used by scientists to further their understanding of the solar system’s early transformation. Trump’s wall, on the other hand, is valued at 34 times this venture.

This kind of research, while it seems extravagant, is actually hugely important in helping us understand phenomena on our own planet – such as light and matter. The significance, purposes and problems of light are explored in the article ‘Bright Lights, Big Science: The physical phenomenon that has helped to shape human history and open up our world’.