Corrections, insights welcome.
So even if global warming had been conclusively proven by the consistent results of repeatable, scientific method-based experiments, it remains that the states have never expressly constitutionally delegated to the feds the specific power to regulate, tax and spend in the name of environmental issues.
In fact, NASA needs to justified with an appropriate constitutional amendment imo.
“Congress is not empowered to tax for those purposes which are within the exclusive province of the States.” —Justice John Marshall, Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
”From the accepted doctrine that the United States is a government of delegated powers, it follows that those not expressly granted, or reasonably to be implied from such as are conferred, are reserved to the states, or to the people. To forestall any suggestion to the contrary, the Tenth Amendment was adopted. The same proposition, otherwise stated, is that powers not granted are prohibited [emphasis added].” —United States v. Butler, 1936.
Exploration has always been done, recall Lewis & Clark? It falls squarely under national defense. NASA was only created as a civilian agency to avoid the overt identification of space exploration as having a military purpose during the cold war.
We have maintained the capability of getting to space for nearly sixty years for the same reason we maintain a navy and air force. We keep exploring space so that we are neither unaware of what is out there and so that we don’t lose that capability while another nation develops it.
Constitutionally, the functions of NASA belong in the Defense Department. Pulling it out was just a head fake with regards to the Soviets and it kept the hippies from sabotaging it politically.
Now the inevitable commercialization of space is beginning to happen. As that proceeds, a military presence will be necessary in the same way it is necessary on the high seas to protect shipping. Bringing back moon rocks and leaving footprints are just things that happened as a result of military needs.
We have weather, communication, gps, and remote sensing satellites as well that comprise critical infrastructure that also need to be protected the same as any other infrastructure. Waiting until there is an immediate threat to develop or create the means to defend this infrastructure will be too late.