(Only) 23% Want to Spend More on Space Exploration

Should the U.S. spend more on space exploration? Only about one in four Americans aged 18 or older say yes, according to the General Social Survey. That's not many supporters, but it's a lot more than it used to be.

Percent who think the U.S. spends too little on space exploration

2018: 22.8%

2008: 13.6%

1998: 10.3%

1988: 18.4%

1978: 12.9%

1975:   8.0%

The Apollo program put a man on the Moon 50 years ago tomorrow, on July 20, 1969. The program ended a few years later in 1975. It's easy to see why. At the time, only 8 percent of the public said the U.S. was spending too little on space exploration. Fully 60 percent thought we were spending too much. 

Times have changed. The share of Americans who think we're spending too much on space exploration fell from 60 percent in 1975 to just 25 percent in 2018. A nearly equal number—23 percent—now want to spend more on space exploration, nearly three times the 8 percent of 1975. 

Source: Demo Memo analysis of the General Social Survey

Let's Send an Astronaut to Mars!

Democrats and Republicans agree about one thing—Americans of both political persuasions want to see an astronaut go to Mars. The 55 percent majority of both Democrats and Republicans are in favor of the United States spending money to send an astronaut to the Red Planet. By age, support for sending an astronaut to Mars does not vary all that much either...

Percent who support sending an astronaut to Mars
Total adults: 53%
Aged 18 to 29: 65%
Aged 30 to 49: 54%
Aged 50 to 64: 48%
Aged 65-plus: 46%

The public's support for sending an astronaut to Mars has been growing. Among total adults, only 43 percent favored it in 1999, 10 percentage points below the level of 2019. During those years, the biggest increase in support occurred among Americans aged 65 or older. Only 21 percent of older Americans wanted to spend money to send an astronaut to Mars in 1999. Perhaps because boomers have been filling the 65-plus age group, support has grown to the 46 percent of today.

Source: Gallup, For First Time, Majority in U.S. Backs Human Mission to Mars

How Many Would Go into Space?

Americans are a timid bunch. Personally, most would not want medical treatments so that they could live to be at least 120, most don't want to ride in a driverless car, and most don't want to go into space.

Only 42 percent of people aged 18 or older are definitely/probably interested in orbiting earth in a spacecraft, according to a Pew Research Center Survey. The 58 percent majority is definitely/probably not interested in going into space. Why not ride a rocket into space? The biggest concern is cost, second is fear, and third is age/health problems. Most Millennials do want to go into space. Most in the older generations do not.

Percent who definitely/probably would be interested in orbiting earth in a spacecraft
Millennials: 63%
Generation Xers: 39%
Boomers or older: 27%

Millennials may get their chance to go into space, according to exactly half of the public. Fifty percent of Americans think people will routinely travel in space as tourists by 2068.

Source: Pew Research Center, Space Tourism? Majority of Americans Say They Wouldn't Be Interested