Nye serves as chief executive officer of The Planetary Society. Nye: Don't forget 'Final Frontier'

For some of planetary science’s biggest fans, NASA has no substitute.

“No other agency can do what those guys do,” said Bill Nye, known as “The Science Guy” from his PBS show of the same name. “No other space agency can land sophisticated instruments on Mars with the ability to look for signs of water and life. Nobody else can do that. So to lose that ability would be a tragedy, not just for the United States, but for mankind. If those people are compelled to find other jobs in other industries, you’ll never find them again.”


( PHOTOS: NASA rover Curiosity lands on Mars)

Budget negotiations taking place on Capitol Hill will most likely have a financial impact on a myriad of sectors of American life, and Nye is imploring Congress to spare the world of scientific research.

Nye, who serves as chief executive officer of The Planetary Society, told POLITICO, “It’s not clear that space exploration, especially planetary exploration, is as high a priority as I feel it should be.” Nye says last week’s news from space — namely the quality of data, information and images from NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars — should remind people of the importance of space.

“I understand that planetary science is, for most congressmen and senators, a small thing way in the background, but I would argue strongly that investment in science, especially planetary science, is what NASA does best. … We would not have the Internet; we would not have smartphones; we would not have Skype without the space program. So space brings out the best in us, and although I’m optimistic that funding will be restored, I’m concerned that it won’t be restored at a sufficient level.”

Nye has been a backer of President Barack Obama’s and excuses, in part, what could be seen as the administration’s lack of focus on space exploration to the fact that “they’ve had so many other fish to fry.”

“They haven’t had the energy to address NASA,” said Nye, who when asked if he was happy with the administration’s performance added, “Not quite.”

“These guys have had to fight so many other battles over the last four years, that they haven’t been able to pull it off,” Nye said. “When it comes down to it, $300 million a year isn’t that much money. It’s a lot of money, but it’s not that much money. It just takes leadership.” Nye was referencing a $300 million cut the Obama administration proposed in its 2013 budget.

Nye’s solution to avoiding the fiscal cliff? Don’t do what Grover Norquist has suggested and broadcast the negotiations on C-SPAN.

“I think you want these guys in private where they can yell at each other and swear and express their emotions and reach an agreement,” Nye said.

When the fiscal cliff is — hopefully — averted, Nye hopes the administration will turn its attention to another pressing concern that sparks his passion: preventing climate change.

“Hurricane Sandy, I hope, shakes everybody up,” Nye said. “The financial capital of the world was shut down by this Category 1 storm. You want to be ready for that in the future. … Hurricane Sandy was, in every way, consistent with every reasonable climate model that exists. So you want to make changes.”