Enthusiasm for going beyond the great beyond doesn’t seem to resonant with most Americans, according to a new poll by Monmouth University. A full 69 percent said they wouldn’t take a trip to space on a private company’s rocket, even if it was free.
Monmouth conducted the poll of just over 1,000 adults to gauge Americans feelings on space exploration and travel. While they found that most Americans, 56 percent, agreed that the 1960s space program gave us “long-lasting benefits,” they also learned that Americans are pretty divided about our tax dollars being spent on space exploration. Only 42 percent are in favor of the our government spending billions of dollars to send astronauts to the moon, Mars and other places, while 50 percent oppose that spending.
Only a bare majority, at 51 percent, supports spending more on the space program at all.
“Half a century after NASA’s heyday, America is still fascinated by the prospects of space exploration, but balk at the price tag,” said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute in the statement. “However, they opposed the space program’s cost in the 1960s as well.”
NASA launched the initial test spaceship for its Orion program and long-range human exploration of space just two months ago. It’s only one of many races to space right now, with private companies, like Virgin and SpaceX, getting in on the action, too. Not to mention the Mars One mission that is narrowing down its candidate field. The poll found that 58 percent of Americans support the idea of private companies getting into — and funding — the space travel game.
So, I guess we want it? We just want someone like Richard Branson or Elon Musk to pay for it.
By the way, this video of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, which is designed to carry humans into space, will get your blood pumping: