![]() Without NASA's participation in these kinds of climate monitoring, there will be a huge gap in the data that other agencies will struggle to fill. Here are the numbers to know, from Popular Science: In recent years Republican lawmakers have sought budget cuts to climate change-related Earth science programs at all three agencies. ![]() The NSF has a budget roughly three times smaller than NASA's, and has essentially no involvement in building, launching or operating satellites. It contracts with NASA to use the space agency's Earth-observing satellites, and relies on NASA's help in building and launching satellites of its own. With a budget about a quarter of NASA's, NOAA spends the bulk of its funds on weather forecasting and environmental monitoring. It goes like this: NASA ought to be about space exploration, and watching the Earth should be left to agencies designed for that purpose, such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Science Foundation.īut here's the problem, as laid out by Scientific American: So-in theory-there is a note of sense to the Trump argument, one that Republican lawmakers have pushed for a while now. It is endlessly frustrating to see the agency make these big plans and only to fall back because it's a taxpayer-funded organization that juggles competing obligations. We want a base on the moon, bootprints on Mars, and kick-ass robots exploring the subsurface water on Europa and the weird lakes on Titan. Popular Mechanics has always loved NASA's big dreams. They are the only eyes and ears that can see our home from another frame of reference, and with terrifying objectivity. They follow hurricanes and monitor sea surface temperatures. NASA satellites track wildfires and sea ice. The DSCOVR mission (Deep Space Climate Observatory) watches for the powerful solar storms that could wreak havoc on our planet and all its advanced technology. NASA's GOES satellites (the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite system) provides a constant stream of Earth observations useful both for short-term weather forecasting and long-term climate forecasting. Unless you want to let the military take over.īesides, when it comes to studying the Earth, you have to do a bunch of work from space. It might seem weird that America's space exploration agency devotes so much energy to our homeworld, but no other government agency is equipped to study our planet from afar and tell us what's happening in the big picture. NASA's X-plane research had led the way to amazing aircraft innovations without ever leaving the atmosphere.Įarth science is another severely under-appreciated chunk of what NASA does. Within the very name-National Aeronautics and Space Administration-you'll find an oft-forgotten part of the NASA mission. It's easy to think of NASA as space exploration and nothing more. Lots of people associate the agency with only its most spectacular achievements: the moon landing, space shuttles, the International Space Station, plans to someday put a person on Mars. Earth is arguably the most important place NASA studies. But it's worth taking a moment to consider the implications in case this is the path forward. ![]() This is not yet an official policy from the Trump team. The Guardian reports today that the President-Elect wants to eliminate all climate science by the agency-all of it-and refocus NASA on exploring the rest of the solar system. November 23, 2016: We'll have to wait until 2017 to find out how the Trump Administration approaches science and technology in America, but the hints are starting to pile up. Trump's budget also cripples NOAA's satellite division with a 22 percent funding cut-from $2.3 billion to $1.8 billion-so it's unlikely that either agency will be in a position to sustain America's leadership in Earth observation and climate science. However, the Trump team would gut four big missions devoted to studying our own home planet.Īs the original article below addresses, the position of the Trump Administration is that Earth observation would be better handled by other agencies like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration so NASA could focus on spaceflight and exploration. The agency's budget would decrease just 0.8 percent overall, but within that number lies a great shuffle in what's prioritized and funded at NASA.Īs we noted yesterday, Trump's NASA budget prioritizes the Europa Clipper flyby mission, Mars 2020 rover, the Space Launch System rocket and the Orion spacecraft. Update, March 17, 2017: This week the Trump Administration released a preliminary budget that outlines its vision for NASA's priorities, and it's much what you'd expect from what Trump said before his inauguration.
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