Why NASA’s discoveries matter

This week NASA confirmed strong evidence that flowing water does, in fact, exist on present-day Mars, which leads to a higher possibility of life on the red planet.

This news comes just a few months after the New Horizons probe completed its 10-year journey to capture the first high-definition color photos of Pluto and its moon Charon. With all of this new information making its way into the public, a good amount of people may be wondering what the big deal is.

Since its formation in 1958 and the space race of the 1960s, NASA has been a leading administration in space exploration. However, in the past 30 years or so, the public’s perception and national focus on space exploration has…