I would really be more comfortable with a space program being funded directly by people like yourself in the form of donations to a gov-independent organization, because I for one don't really care all that much about continued space exploration and don't think the government should pay for it. Not that they don't spend tons of money on other stupid stuff, but hey, one step at a time...
Wasn't SETI just a pointless project by a bunch of those pesky nerds?
Do you think that the Pyramids or the Colosseum were a waste of money?
One of the features of the Shuttle was that it provided a way to carry large items to and from space while safe and hidden inside of the vehicle.
?? The SETI institute is a California non-profit organization. The government cannot defund it, because it receives no government funding. It is financed entirely by private contributors.
We as a species devote a tremendous amount of our resources to killing each other. Why don't we devote more to exploration?
Wars are justified by governments as an investment in the future. We want to "secure the middle east", etc.
Why isn't science looked at in the same light? It's an investment in the future.
>Why don't we devote more to exploration?
Maybe because people are failing to communicate its benefits clearly? For instance, the OP:
war==bad + assertion of disgust --> X==good
X could be anything. ANYTHING. Why aren't we investing more in wooden shoes? Didn't you know war is bad? Even if X==good, I hope people are inoculated against these type of arguments.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHuve33yOVY
or this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxsJeND_D-k&feature=relat...
Honestly, watching this chokes me up a little bit. Watching the last shuttle flight, then seeing SETI have to realistically think about parking all of their listening equipment is just...sad.
Too many people get caught up in the "why" of this stuff. You're looking at it wrong. Look at space travel as an expression of humanity, and a really important one. Ancient people built Pyramids, or Stonehenge, or the Colosseum. I wonder how many Romans thought building the Colosseum was a waste of money.
The shuttle, or SETI are our Pyramids. It's disgusting that we can spend as many billions of dollars a year as we do on blowing each other up, but things like "Let's see what's on the other side of that proverbial mountain" get defunded because they're "pointless".