Forget the Moon—Think Ocean Exploration
August 29, 2022
NASA just postponed the launch of a massive rocket designed to carry humans back to the moon, an endeavor that many observers see as expensive and misguided. Count Amitai Etzioni in this camp. In Issues, he argues that the US government should instead redirect NASA funding for space missions to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to greatly boost study of Earth’s oceans. Exploring deep space, he writes, can be better done with advanced robots. Oceans are nearby, and they hold potential solutions for an array of national concerns, including climate change, energy and mineral needs, food supplies, and hurricane threats.