What's Weather Prediction Worth?
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One aspect of the space economy tends to get overlooked: weather. Without space, we'd be in trouble.
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Missing: Audacity
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The good news: current leadership is working on renewing NASA.
The bad news: they’re working without the audacious national mission we need. It’s as if NASA is a boxer training without any fight scheduled.
Read MoreWhy Probe the Sun? For One Reason, to Help Predict a Disaster
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Next year, NASA will send up a probe offering further proof that space is anything but empty. The Gravity Well is full of weather, and some of it can be devastating here on Earth.
Read MoreCrystals in Space
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Imagine a Dr. Mary, a young assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Maryland. Mary wants to combine a set of different molecules to form a crystal, one that she believes might offer unparalleled insulating qualities. Her problem is, her Earth-bound laboratory can’t produce the kind of perfect crystal that she needs to prove her hypothesis. Gravity has a tendency to distort the way crystals form.
Read MoreNASA? We Have a Problem
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While many spinoffs continue with NASA engineers founding their own lucrative companies, some of the greatest side benefits of the space program work in the opposite direction. NASA contracts with private companies to invent solutions to aerospace problems; the companies in turn figure out other, profitable ways to use their inventions.
Read MoreHow Space Can Save Transportation
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Sometime in this century, people will be flying autonomous aircraft—the equivalent of the self-driving car. Personal air vehicles, perhaps powered by electric batteries, can help relieve our overcrowded airports, save land, and minimize emissions.
Read MoreAmerica's Imperiled Reputation
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Over the last 100 years, brave Americans on the battlefield and industrious Americans back home played a major role in making the world’s citizens more free, secure, and prosperous. For most of that time, most of the world viewed us as—mostly—a force for good. Now we have another battle to fight.
Read MoreSpace Fact #31: 85% of NASA’s Budget Goes to Private Industry
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The Apollo mission directed 85% of its budget—more than $100 million—to private companies. That percentage holds true to this day.
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