Poll: Americans aren’t over the moon about paying for space exploration
Sam Matthews
·Executive Producer, Yahoo News
Sat, April 1, 2023
Welcome to This Week in Outer Space, where you’ll find a roundup of the best space coverage from Yahoo News and our partners from the past week or so. Last week, we were off, due to a special visitor at our office in New York. This week, we’re back, with a potentially game-changing discovery on the moon, a new theory to explain a giant space rock’s bizarre behavior and an unfortunate update on the fate of Richard Branson’s satellite launch business. But first, a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll shows that Americans aren’t quite ready to buy into the hype surrounding future lunar missions.
Poll: Americans aren’t over the moon about paying for space exploration
Lately, it seems like NASA will take any chance to remind you that we're going back to the moon. There has been no shortage of updates on the upcoming Artemis missions, with announcements, announcements of upcoming announcements and even the space exploration equivalent of fashion week. Returning to the moon after more than 50 years is an exciting prospect, and one that could have huge ramifications for how we live here on Earth. But a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll shows that Americans aren't overwhelmingly enthusiastic about NASA's lunar ambitions.
Fifty percent of respondents told us they're excited by the possibility of returning to the moon, while 36% said they aren't. The rest, well, they weren't so sure. And when it comes to the specifics of the upcoming Artemis missions, 58% of Americans said they've never heard of it, with just 8% saying they've heard "a lot." However, a clear 62% majority still considers it important for the U.S. to maintain its status as the world leader in space exploration.
That said, Americans are far more divided on whether "space missions are a good use of taxpayer money" — 40% say yes, 36% say no — and oddly enough, here America's political divide finds a rare moment of unity: People who voted for Joe Biden in the 2020 election responded almost exactly in the same way as those who voted for Donald Trump, with 48% and 46% saying the cost of space exploration is worth it.
Illustration by Yahoo News
So, why are Americans hesitant about footing the bill for space missions? Tom Zelibor, CEO of the Space Foundation, says it may come down to a lack of "space awareness."
"The awareness side of space that people don't get is that the majority of technologies that we have to develop for being in austere environments in space absolutely benefit us on Earth," Zelibor told Yahoo News.
"The landscape is replete with examples," he added, pointing to everyday objects like football helmets, polarized sunglasses, WD-40 and even modern cosmetics that have connections to space program innovations. Motioning to his smartphone, he chuckled, "Everyone has one of these things in their pocket. Well, you know, 90% of that phone is useless if you don't have space technologies attached to it."
"We have to do a better job on the space awareness side, because people will see dollar signs, but they won't equate it to what it does for us on Earth," he concluded.
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