Top Scientists Explain to Senators Why We Must Look for Aliens

Martian landscape as photographed by Opportunity (Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell Univ./Arizona State Univ.)

In a new article for Gizmodo, Ryan F. Mandelbaum writes, "The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation is holding a series of hearings leading up to another NASA authorization bill, which helps set goals and authorizes funding for the agency (2017-2018's bill is here). On Wednesday, scientists from U.S. universities, the Smithsonian Institution, and NASA answered senators’ questions about why Congress should fund the hunt for extraterrestrial life."

EAPS professor and PAOC member Sara Seager told the committee that, "most senior engineers today, either in civilian space science, national defense or national security, were inspired by the moon landings. And today, the equivalent of that is the search for life.”