You may be surprised to learn just how invested NASA is in agriculture, and while the agency is known for shooting for the stars.
Its involvement in the U.S. Drought Monitor serves as a prime example of the space agency’s connection, especially when it comes to integrating satellite data.
According to NASA’s Brad Doorn, “Through our climate sensors, we’re able to understand groundwater changes much more effectively than we ever have in the past. We now provide a data product from our Goodard Space Flight Center to the U.S. Drought Monitor that provides, at the same time step as the U.S. Drought Monitor on a weekly basis— groundwater root soil moisture and surface soil moisture products for the entire nation.”
During his Inaugural Address, President Trump vowed to put U.S. astronauts on Mars. Doorn says that mission would not be possible without NASA.
“The minute we started getting serious about going back to the moon, getting to Mars, you just saw the wheels going, that we have to be able to feed when we’re there. We got to eat when we’re there. We got to be able to sustain our astronauts while we’re getting there, and I can tell you from our experiences, the amount of effort that’s going into that and a big partnership is with USDA in that process and whether it’s tomatoes right now or sustainable things as we move in the future, that’s only going to grow.”
Planting the Stars and Stripes on Mars is a lofty goal. At its farthest distance, the U.S. and Mars are 248 million miles apart.
