4:24 p.m. ET, February 18, 2021
Retired NASA astronaut: Space exploration "directly benefits our ability to survive all the crises that might come at us"
From CNN's Maureen Chowdhury
Erika Goldring/Getty Images
Retired NASA astronaut Ron Garan said the Perseverance rover landing on Mars is significant because "these are the baby steps of exploring our whole solar system."
"Really everything we do in space directly benefits life on Earth," Garan told CNN's Brooke Baldwin.
"It directly benefits our ability to survive all the crises that might come at us, whether that's super volcanic eruptions, global warming. Whatever the case is, a better understanding of how planetary science works, how planets function, and the life cycle of planets is going to help us here on Earth immensely. And it's also going to help us understand our place in the universe," he said.
Garan said the rover looking into why there isn't life on Mars now is just as important as looking for signs of life.
"Imagine if we see evidence that there was once life on Mars. I mean, that would be amazing in itself. But to me, the other part of that is, we'd want to know why there's not life there now. We would want to know why a planet that used to have water and used to potentially be able to support life no longer does. And that has incredible implications for our own climate study here on Earth," Garan said.