CLEVELAND — President Donald Trump's proposed record $4.175 trillion federal budget unveiled Monday contains a noticeable surge in funding for Ohio’s NASA Glenn Research Center, which will be instrumental in returning astronauts to the moon and exploring Mars.

The new funding is largely intended for the development and testing of propulsion technology needed for deep-space missions.

NASA Glenn's current federal funding is $697 million. The next fiscal year's sum is expected to be as much as 22 percent more, or $850 million, with another increase projected in 2020.

"As far as a specific role, it's the largest role that we have here in the past 10 years from that standpoint in our overall budget," said Larry Sivic, chief financial officer for the center.

Back in the 1990s, when the center was working on projects such as the International Space Station, its annual budget topped a billion dollars.

NASA is working on building the lunar-orbit space station Gateway in partnership with other space agencies. It would function as an outpost allowing astronauts to travel to and from moon. Astronauts are expected to return to the moon in 2028 — nearly 60 years after the first moon landing. Exploration on Mars is projected to take place in the 2030s.

"The real policy is, go farther in space,” said Bryan Smith, director of NASA Glenn's Space Flight Systems.

For many years, astronauts have orbited about 200 miles above the Earth. On average, the moon is 238,855 miles away.

And what does it mean for the team at @NASAglenn in #Ohio? #Moon2Mars pic.twitter.com/dIhCXtsift

— Beth Burger (@ByBethBurger) March 12, 2019

The center is also aiding in NASA’s rocket space-launch system for the Orion spacecraft. That rocket will travel 23,618 mph.

At Glenn, the center's 27 vacuum facility chambers — which date to the 1960s — will be used to test solar electric compulsion devices needed for long space missions. In the chambers, nitrogen is used to create space-like conditions, Smith said.

Models of the engines, or thrusters, will be tested in the coming weeks. The Orion crew capsule will be tested in the world's largest thermal chamber, in Sandusky, in July. The capsule will be flown to Ohio from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

“We’re so excited to be a part of this. Folks have worked in this area, literally, for decades. ... We’re beyond excited,” said David Jacobson, chief of the electric propulsion systems branch at Glenn.

The engine in the graphite-lined chamber uses xenon as a fuel. Ions separate and are pulled out at high rate through a grid or an electric field.

David Jacobson, chief of electric propulsion systems for @NASAglenn, describes what happens inside VF 6 chamber. (VF = Vacuum Facility) #Moon2Mars #Nasa pic.twitter.com/XpZUNme9kA

— Beth Burger (@ByBethBurger) March 12, 2019

"Those ions fly out the other side, and that's what causes the propulsion. Much like a large rocket that you think of smoke and fire and lifting up something the size of a building," Smith said. "The thrust that it generates ... it's very little."

Here’s a good explainer by @NASAglenn’s director of flight systems Bryan Smith about how the chambers work. pic.twitter.com/cWruN8luNm

— Beth Burger (@ByBethBurger) March 12, 2019

However, it allows efficiency in space travel. A lot of force is not necessary outside the gravitational pull of the Earth's atmosphere.

NASA Glenn is also working on a kilopower nuclear-reactor energy source that could provide power for living on and exploring the surface of the moon and eventually Mars as missions lasting years in space take place. Lunar labs are simulating ground conditions to develop the next set of rover tires, and engineers are working to learn the best methods to extract resources from the moon’s surface.

bburger@dispatch.com

@ByBethBurger