Most of us ( understandably ) affiliate NASA with rockets and space geographic expedition , but the infinite agency also keeps an eye on our house planet . And it work out the public is more supportive of NASA ’s efforts to supervise Earth ’s ever - warm up mood than you might expect .
Anew Pew surveyreleased on Wednesday looked at how Americans view their beloved space government agency six decade after its origination . The chief takeaways are about what you ’d expect : Most Americans think the U.S. should keep extend the world in space exploration , and most view the International Space Station ( which the Trump governance isinterested in turning overto the individual sphere ) as a good investment .
But when ask to rate the grandness of nine key outer space means priorities , the sight gets more interesting . Sixty three percent of the 2,500 Americans polled say monitoring the Earth ’s climate organisation should be a top priority for NASA , which gives this commission … drumroll … high public anteriority than any other . In comparison , a scant 13 percent of Americans think proceed back to the Moon ( amuch - boast goalof the Trump administration ) should be NASA ’s top precedence , and just 18 pct read getting boots on Mars ( akey Obama - epoch aspiration ) ought to be .
Climate monitoring even beat out monitoring dangerous asteroids as a top antecedency , albeit by a single share gunpoint . That ’s correct : NASA ’s work on thenotoriously hard - to - care - aboutsubject of mood science is on par with asteroids in the public middle , despite the seemingly endless torrent of viral mental object broadcast our impending doom from outer blank space
partizan political sympathies do make for a role here . Only 44 percentage of Republicans and Republican - leaning independent said monitoring Earth ’s climate system should be NASA ’s top precedence ( which ai n’t nothing ) compared with 78 percent of Democrats . This is no surprisal : There ’s a longstanding and profoundly partizan water parting on climate , and it determine our thinking on just about everything related to it ( well , except maybe fresh energy ) .
Still , in an era where honk climate defence is basically toeing party line of credit for Republicans , the findings should offer some promise .
Of all the government agencies that carry on with clime change , NASA has proven itself surprisingly immune to Trumpian hinderance . Despite the White House ’s recur attempts to slash the authority ’s Earth scientific discipline budget , that budget has remained flat . A recent attempt to pour down a small but critical greenhouse gas pedal monitoring syllabus wasreversed by Congressafter newsworthiness outlets report on it . Even NASA ’s newfangled administrator , who had some objectively whacky belief on mood before assuming the role , has recentlychanged his line .
NASA ’s fleet of Earth monitoring satellites play an substantive role in help scientists monitor and understand the impacts of human - stimulate climate alteration , from fly glaciers to rising sea levels . It ’s heartening that Americans seem to recognize this matter more than pillory off to Mars , despite how tempting the latter sounds .
[ h / tIFLScience ]
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