I was watching the news recently and saw a segment on a set of rare volcanoes discovered on the moon. Bill Nye the Science Guy was helping to explain the importance of this discovery. He said that this discovery shows scientists that the moon was more active than they had originally thought (he also reassured the audience that there is no danger of these volcanoes erupting due to the moon having a cool surface).
He went on to explain that discoveries on the moon help scientists to understand the Earth better, just as understanding the planet Venus helps them understand climate changes here on Earth. He stated that the Earth is compared to Venus and the moon for enlightenment on what is transpiring here.
While I am not an expert on any of this (nor do I have a desire to become a great expert) this discovery has left me with one question:
If understanding other planets helps us make comparisons to Earth, why did we allow NASA to shut down?
Isn’t this just one more example as to why we need a fully functioning NASA? (Okay, that was two questions.)
If anyone has any additional information I would love to hear it, as I stated I do not know much about lunar science and would like to better understand how it was a wise decision to shut NASA down. Couldn't we have cut the budget of NASA without shutting down the ability of our astronauts to go into space without the assistance of Russia?
Space exploration will not be lost, just privatized. Check out this article.
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