If we want to explore and eventually colonize other planets and do superradical things like terraforming , we need to have an idea of how planetary ecosystems and atmospheres work and there ' s no better place to do so than on our own . Besides which , the sciences and practices developed for extraplanetary colonization can be applied here , be it the development of more efficient food production methods to deal with potential food chain collapses resource harvesting and conversion improved oxygen filtration and carbon capturing , which could possibly be scaled up for atmospheric carbon capture to make us carbonnegative energy generation like cheaper , smallscale nuclear and cheap , higherefficiency solar allowing us to phase out other energy sources lightweight highdurability materials which can be applied to vehicles to improve fuel economy and make pure electric more viable and a whole bunch more . And besides which , NASA already has a comprehensive database of info about the climate and tons of tools to assist in datagathering and modelling which NOAA simply doesn ' t have . And if nothing else , it ' s the National AERONAUTICS and Space Agency , atmospheres and all their detaily are perfectly within their purview .