Why Exploring Space Still Matters - Neil deGrasse Tyson (audio)

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Last edited Mon Feb 27, 2012, 06:29 PM - Edit history (1)

After decades of global dominance, America's space shuttle program ended last summer while countries like Russia, China and India continue to advance their programs. But astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, author of the new book Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier, says America's space program is at a critical moment. He thinks it's time for America to invest heavily in space exploration and research.

http://pd.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/me/2012/02/20120227_me_13.mp3

(7 min 46 sec)

ETA: The Transcript has been posted.

TYSON: One year's expenditures of the United States military budget equals the entire 50-year running budget of NASA combined.

GREENE: Well, give me an argument for why that shouldn't be the case. I mean, why, NASA's budget needs to be bumped up, why it's worth it.

TYSON: I think if you double it, that's enough to take us in bold visions in a shorter time scale to Mars, visit asteroids - one of them's going to hit us one day - to study the status of all the planets. Venus has a runaway greenhouse effect. I kind of want to know what happened there because we're twirling knobs here on Earth without knowing the consequences of it. Mars once had running water. It's bone dry today. Something bad happened there as well.

Asteroids have us in our sight. The dinosaurs didn't have a space program, so they're not here to talk about this problem. We are, and we have the power to do something about it. I don't want to be the embarrassment of the galaxy to have had the power to deflect an asteroid, and then not and end up going extinct. We'd be the laughingstock of the aliens of the cosmos if that were the case.

GREENE: I'm frankly scared of asteroids.

TYSON: You ought to be.