It is not news that the U.S. economy and its job growth are deficient, and it is not news that innovation drives a productive economy. Overseas jobs, talks of tariffs and trade negotiations are a direct result of lack of innovation within our own country. A greater investment in NASA and space exploration would not seem like an impactful or intelligent solution, but it is a case that must be made and affirmed.

Neil deGrasse Tyson, who has been featured on such shows as “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and “The Colbert Report,” among others, is a leading proponent of the position that an investment in space exploration today is an investment in tomorrow’s broad economic cultivation. If you have not done so already, watch his inspiring testimony at the Senate Commerce hearing online. This letter paraphrases that testimony and many other words of Tyson.

The 1960s were a turbulent decade with the civil rights movement, the Cold War, the Vietnam War and campus unrests, but in contrast, the decade also had the great space race. The NASA missions crossed boundaries and advanced frontiers never before possible. Every week or month, advances in space took the headlines because there was something new to talk about that resonated with our deep exploratory instinct.

Anyone who watched Neil Armstrong land on the moon in 1969 was compelled to do great things regardless of their profession, and thus created a national culture of innovation and creativity. However, that era has long passed, and we no longer have an inexhaustible drive to dream of tomorrow.

In today’s economy, you might say, “Let private industry take over the role of NASA.” Unfortunately, the business model of private industry will never allow for difficult, dangerous and seemingly unprofitable ventures. If a business will not make a direct profit from going to Mars, then it will never be funded. The key word in that statement is “direct,” and an indirect effect on the United States is where NASA has been adept.

Today, the NASA budget is roughly a half penny on the tax dollar. In comparison, defense spending is 20 cents on the tax dollar. Consider doubling NASA’s budget to one penny on the tax dollar, and it would allow NASA to go beyond orbit, back to the moon, to Mars and other planetary moons within mere decades. The investment is not a handout to a special interest; rather it is an investment that drives the culture of innovation that pays out more than what was put in.

Extending NASA’s exploration into the unknown does not only invigorate engineers and scientists, but it energizes us as nationalists to dream of tomorrow again. Push for increased funding of NASA, and the enthusiasm from advancing a space frontier will reverberate through our public and distill into our own economic progress.

Coming back to Tyson’s words, he said, “Epic space adventure plants seeds of economic growth because doing what has never been done before is intellectually seductive.”