This finding is in keeping with a Pew Research Center survey , which used somewhat different question wording and polling methods. Also see Appendix for views on these issues by gender. There are no more than modest differences by education level in agency priorities.
See Appendix for details. Private companies such as SpaceX, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic continue to develop space exploration capabilities that were once the sole purview of government agencies such as NASA. Although most Americans believe that NASA still has an essential role to play in the exploration of space, they also express confidence that private companies can make meaningful contributions in such areas as developing safe spacecraft and conducting research to expand scientific knowledge.
Americans, however, tend to be skeptical about whether private companies will minimize human-made space debris, which increasingly poses a hazard to orbiting satellites and space stations. When thinking about priorities for NASA, Americans who are highly attentive to space news put more priority than other Americans on research missions such as basic scientific research and learning about the health effects of space travel.
Those who have heard a lot about space news also tend to express more confidence in private space companies to handle key aspects of space exploration, especially building safe and cost-effective spacecraft. Americans expect a range of scientific and technological developments ahead.
But the public is divided over the prospects for space tourism in the next 50 years. Interest in orbiting the Earth is greater among younger generations, men and those who are more attentive to space news.
In times of uncertainty, good decisions demand good data. Please support our research with a financial contribution. It organizes the public into nine distinct groups, based on an analysis of their attitudes and values. Even in a polarized era, the survey reveals deep divisions in both partisan coalitions. Pew Research Center now uses as the last birth year for Millennials in our work.
President Michael Dimock explains why. If we want to stay that way, space exploration is vital. Here are five reasons why we belong up there. Humans did not evolve to go into space, but we go there anyway. That has led to the development of various technologies that feed back into the economy and improve our lives on Earth.
Space exploration could save your life. Speaking of saving lives, space exploration could save all our lives. The solar system has calmed down a lot since the early eons, but there are still an unknown number of big asteroids and comets out there that could smack into the planet and really ruin your day.
A wisely funded space program enables us to spot a dangerous object long before it strikes Earth, and send a spacecraft to plant and detonate a nuclear explosion that could nudge it off its collision course [sources: NASA , NSS ]. A very long list of gadgets, materials and processes originally were developed for the U. We all know about freeze-dried food, but there are plenty of others. In the s, for example, NASA scientists developed a plastic coated with a metallic reflecting agent.
When used in a blanket, it reflects about 80 percent of a user's body heat back to him or her — an ability that helps accident victims and post-marathon runners to stay warm. Another more obscure but valuable innovation is nitinol , a flexible but resilient alloy that was developed to enable satellites to spring open after being folded into a rocket.
Today, orthodontists equip patients with braces made from the material [source: Independent ]. The International Space Station alone has generated scores of medical innovations with uses on Earth, such as a method for delivering cancer-fighting medication directly to tumors; gadgetry that a nurse can hold to perform ultrasounds and transmit the results to a doctor thousands of miles away; and a robotic arm that can perform delicate surgery inside an MRI machine.
NASA scientists, in an effort to protect astronauts from losing bone and muscle in the microgravity environment of space, also helped a pharmaceutical company to test Prolia, a drug that today helps protect elderly people from osteoporosis. It was easier to test this drug in space as astronauts lose around 1. If we want a world in which our kids aspire to being great scientists and engineers instead of reality show hosts, rappers or Wall Street financial tycoons, having a great enterprise to attract and inspire them is crucial.
As astronomer, author and host of TV's "Cosmos" reboot Neil deGrasse Tyson recently told National Public Radio , "I could stand in front of eighth-graders and say, 'Who wants to be an aerospace engineer so you can design an airplane 20 percent more fuel-efficient than the one your parents flew? But if I say, 'Who wants to be an aerospace engineer to design the airplane that will navigate the rarefied atmosphere of Mars?
I'm getting the best students in the class. The U. And while it and other major powers such as Russia and China are signatories of a treaty that forbids nations from claiming territory in space, it's not hard to think of examples of past treaties that were tossed aside when someone saw a benefit in doing so. Even if the U. That's why it's crucial to back up diplomacy with a NASA spacefaring capacity that could be converted to military use, if needed.
There's gold out there in the cosmos, and silver , platinum and other valuable substances, too [source: McKie ]. A lot of attention has been given to a private-sector venture that envisions mining operations on asteroids, but space miners wouldn't have to go that far to find riches.
The moon also is believed to be a potential source of rare earth elements such as europium and tantalium, which are in high demand for use in electronics, solar panels and other advanced gadgetry [source: Ouellette ]. Earlier, we mentioned the ominous notion of international conflict in space.
But it doesn't have to be that way, as evidenced by the cooperation of multiple nations on the International Space Station. And a U. A paper published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank, points out the benefits of international cooperation. For one, the hefty costs could be spread around.
For another, it could forge stronger diplomatic ties between nations such as the U. And a quarter of them think that extraterrestrials already have visited our planet [source: Swanson ]. But so far, sweeps of the sky with Earth-based telescopes for signals that might be beacons from distant civilizations have proven fruitless, possibly because the Earth's atmosphere interferes with such messages reaching us. That's why searchers for extraterrestrial civilizations are eager for the deployment of more orbital observatories such as the James Webb Space Telescope.
That satellite, which is expected to launch in , will have the ability to search for the chemical signs of life in the atmospheres of distant planets outside our solar system [source: Kramer ]. That's a start, but an even more aggressive space-based effort to look for clues of extraterrestrials might finally help us to answer the question of whether we have company out there. Our primitive ancestors spread from east Africa to all over the planet, and since then, we've never stopped moving.
We're running out of fresh territory on Earth , so the only way to meet this ancient urge is to find somewhere new to go -- whether it's making brief jaunts to the moon as a tourist, or signing up for an interstellar voyage that will take multiple generations.
In a speech , former NASA administrator Michael Griffin differentiated between "acceptable reasons" and "real reasons" for space exploration. Acceptable reasons would be issues like economic benefit and national security. But real reasons include concepts like curiosity, competiveness and monument-building. Already, our ability to put satellites in space is helping us to monitor and combat pressing problems on Earth, from forest fires and oil spills to the depletion of aquifers that people depend upon for drinking water [source: Fowler ].
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