Space technologies can help solve Earth's challenges
Four tropical cyclones simultaneously churn across the Western Hemisphere in this image captured by the GOES-16 weather satellite in September 2019. Weather forecasting/monitoring is just one of many ways that space tech improves our lives. (Image: © NASA Earth Observatory/Joshua Stevens/NOAA/NEDIS) Some people are baffled as to why we spend so much time and money developing spacecraft and technologies that will launch us into space and help us explore distant planets while, at home on Earth, we already have pressing challenges in need of solutions. Each year, we spend billions of dollars on developing space technologies. The 2020 budget for NASA alone is over $20 billion . Many people may not recognize that the development of space exploration technologies has already helped benefit Earth in many ways, especially when it comes to communications, Earth observation and even fostering economic growth. Space technologies are surprisingly critical in ...