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Mackenzie Thompson manages mission marketing and execution initiatives with the Disk Foundation and the Saving a Lifes initiative, which help communities learn life-saving techniques such as CPR – a valuable skill to own on Earth and in space. Thompson contributed this article to the expert voices of Space.com: Op-Ed and Insights.
America's space program is a necessity, not a luxury. Although we should not have to qualify its importance, it is worth remembering the good that NASA does: the agency employs over 18,000 people and indirectly employs tens of thousands of others in various businesses aerospace; NASA funds scientific research in areas ranging from astronomy to human health, and its fleet of Earth observation satellites provides us with potentially vital information.
Then consider life without the satellites of NASA. Those who monitor our planet from space provide crucial data for weather forecasts and climate science, but they can also help people during natural disasters. [Top 10 Game-Changing Earth Photos From Landsat Satellites]
For example, NASA uses rainfall data collected by satellites to help predict landslides, and the agency helped in California's forest fire response by mapping the damage to the landslides. # 39; space. NASA's satellites also helped chart the extent of the damage when Hurricane Harvey flooded Houston. By mapping the seabed, satellites can help scientists predict tsunamis. Satellite views are also useful during volcanic eruptions by providing maps of cracks and dangerous lava flows. Earth observation satellites can alert people around the world about these events in real time, so people can evacuate faster and that emergency supplies – including medications, food and drinking water – quickly reach those who need it.
Emergency response efforts in the event of natural disasters are as much a social as technological enterprise, and the delivery of emergency badistance depends on what we do in the heaven as much as what we do on the ground. For example: How can emergency responders know where to go and to whom to contact if we do not have real-time information about hurricane-ravaged or fire-prone areas? forest? How can we identify a village outside Nairobi, Kenya, where parents and residents can make the most of CPR learning when there is no satellite communication network?
Rather than considering such a network as taken for granted, Americans should express their support for NASA and encourage policy makers to strengthen this network. We should do more to recognize the indispensable space program, because NASA's satellites are doing important work to help people on Earth – beyond looking at things in space. Their transmissions give the world the means to think and act globally in the face of disasters that threaten people's lives. Think, for example, paramedics who would be unable to perform successful searches, and to rescue missions that would never start, if there were not enough satellite images or GPS technology to guide them.
cause for concern, for fear of undermining or neglecting the importance of this network. The more we discuss this situation, the more we invest in this effort, the safer we will be. And the sooner we can pbad this news around the world.
Follow us @Spacedotcom Facebook and Google+ . Original article on Space.com .
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