Green Politics: Astronomy and NASA

Although Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has expressed his belief to the nonprofit science awareness organization ScienceDebate that “a strong space program will encourage our children to seek STEM [education] and will bring millions of jobs and trillions of dollars in investment to this country.” However, he does not consider funding for astronomy exploration and research companies to be a central concern for the United States.

“Our first priority is to restore a strong economic base to this country,” Trump said in response to a question posed in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’s (AIAA) May issue of its monthly publication Aerospace America. “If we are growing with all of our people employed and our military readiness back to acceptable levels, then we can take a look at the timeline for sending more people into space.”

On the other hand, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has expressed support for NASA and their plans to launch exploratory expeditions to Mars. She addressed the topic of astronomy at a July 2015 event in Dover, New Hampshire, stating that she “really, really… [supports] the space program” and wants to delve deeper into research regarding asteroids and the potential dangers they pose to people on Earth.

“I would like to see us continue to explore space. There’s a lot for us to keep learning [about]… let’s not back off now,” she said in New Hampshire. “Democrats believe in continuing the spirit of discovery that has animated NASA’s exploration of space over the last half century.”