NASA’s priorities appear to be out of whack with what the public wants

A little more than half a day at 2012 DA 14's closest approach a meteor measuring about 20 meters across broke apart in Earth's atmosphere above Chelyabinsk, Russia. Thousands of buildings were damaged, but fortunately no one died. (credit: Alex Alishevskikh/Flickr)

The Trump administration has vowed to make America great again in spaceflight, and the centerpiece of its space policy to date has been a re-prioritization of human spaceflight as central to NASA's activities. As part of this initiative, the White House has sought to reduce funding for satellites to observe environmental changes on Earth and eliminate NASA's office of education.

However, a new survey of 2,541 Americans by Pew Research Center, which aims to represent the views of US adults, finds that these views appear to be out of step with public priorities.

The survey asked respondents about their top priorities for NASA, and the highest support came for "monitor key parts of the Earth's climate system" (63 percent) and "monitor asteroids/objects that could hit the Earth" (62 percent). Sending astronauts to Mars (18 percent), and the Moon (13 percent), lagged far behind as top priorities for respondents.

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