We need to spend more money!

We need to explore more

The more we learn about space, the more we learn about our own planet.
Take a looke at a new telescope. It's the worlds largest, located in Chile. It's called VISTA (an acronym), and takes the most AMAZING pictures.

Here is the link:

http://www.eso.org/public/outreach/press-rel/pr-2009/pr-49-09.html

We need to spend a lot more. Look at the technology that resulted from the spacerace. Take the computer for example. If there had been no space missions then you might have been reading a book right now! Also, as of now we are stuck on this planet and if something where to happen to it we could use a means of escape. The leaps and bounds we could make are greater than the costs!!!

The amount Americans spend annually on holiday decorations is roughly the same as NASA's budget. Sure, the decorations are pretty but, talk about how money could be spent better elsewhere!

Frankly; I believe the money spent would be better suited for use right here on planet earth

Yes, when you look @ what else they are spending it on-seriously?

I don't believe in sci-fi dream living on the Mars and so on. IMHO it's much more expensive than clean the Earth and try to manage our resources properly. Collecting stones doesn't prove to be helpful so far. I support programs as Hubble. At least the results are beautiful and everybody can see that. Come on, who want exchange Earth forests for Mars red desert?

Kudos, Emily! It is so refreshing to see an intelligent, thoughtful, objective contribution to this discussion!

And, on a more significant note (although I'm assuming others have already mentioned this), the billions that go into space exploration programs are not merely to visit the moon or mars just because we want to. So many more things are being studied, researched, learned and discovered through NASA and space exploration programs, relevant to understanding all aspects of life, our earth, our environment and our universe. It has nothing at all to do with going to the moon because we think it's fun or because manifest destiny never quite wore off.