I read somewhere that a big reason for building the portable 4th generation nuclear reactors that rely on some variant of liquid fluoride thorium is that they can be used for space travel.
Well, you just made a great example of how space research focuses America’s scientific brains on things that will no doubt have huge impacts for improving the quality of life on Earth.
That’s really the way it works.
And the President has said numerous times that he really respects and promotes education and skills development. I would love to see a new migration of youth to science, engineering, and manufacturing. NASA space research is a place for many of them to cut their teeth to get started.