Genuine question but how is space travel self-evidently useful?

"Space travel" not so much at present. But reduced cost access to space, for sure.

- geolocation (GPS, GLONASS, etc.) - communications (Starlink, Iridium, etc.) - earth sensing (weather, climate, etc.)

All of these are multibillion $ activities that benefit from lowered launch costs.

Preservation of species, provided you accept that as an axiom. Also more immediate benefits such as reusable rockets, affordable satellite Internet etc.

A couple non contestable points:

1. It has been useful so far as a challenge for technological development that finds other uses on the ground, and this is certainly not about to change;

2. It has been useful so far, in direct applications, and there are still direct uses to be covered (dangerous asteroid avoidance, as an example);

3. It tackles the SPOF we have as a species: living on a single planet;

But the more important one, for me, is one that is contestable. Space faring provides humans with an aspirational goal. Without a long term goal, we are reduced to either an hedonist life, or a never-ending struggle against entropy. We are better, as individuals and as a society, when there is something to long for in the horizon.

The first two points can be said about cryptography

NASA Spinoff Technologies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_spinoff_technologies

20 Inventions We Wouldn't Have Without Space Travel (actual post from NASA themselves): https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/infographics/20-inventions-we-would...

Those are evidence that unrestrained spending on scientists will generate incidental, largely unrelated discoveries. If we had poured as much money over as much time into the study of ghosts and psychic phenomena, we'd be able to make a similar list.

Your statements do not follow, much less is your initial premise demonstrably true as a generalized statement about all scientists.

But before doing all that, Elon Musk built an online payment system.

To my understanding, he was less individually influential in that particular company, which is the reason why I omitted it in my examples. Because in my view, developing an online payment system in 2000 is a far more important project than developing a Proof-of-Stake blockchain with Turing-complete smart contracts in 2022.

But your point stands: he may well go on to do much better things.

He was kicked out of if not fired from PayPal is why you left it out.

Not sure what you’re getting at.

And before that, he and his brother built an early precursor to Google Maps.

> Whatever Elon Musk’s shortcomings might be, he applied his intellect and skills to self-evidently useful domains such as EVs and space travel.

The self-evidence of such is unknown to me.