Pew Poll: Americans See Lunar, Mars Missions as Low Priorities for NASA Written 21 July 2023
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NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE spacecraft, in its orbit around Earth. | Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech; NASA
The Washington Post reports most Americans believe NASA’s top priority should be monitoring asteroids that could strike the Earth instead of returning astronauts to the Moon, according to a poll released Thursday. For respondents in the Pew Research Center survey, only 12 percent of “adults think returning astronauts to the surface of the moon should be NASA’s top priority.” A human landing on “Mars is even less popular: Only 11 percent said it should be the top priority.” By contrast, 60 percent “said monitoring asteroids should be the agency’s top priority; 50 percent said monitoring climate change should be NASA’s top priority.”
Full Story (Washington Post)