The major powers of the world don't really care about the world's problems such as poverty they each want to beat each other in some thing or another and space exploration is one of them. America spent enough money in Iraq to cure world poverty PS even though i think that the major world powers should focus their attention on where they live now not where they wanna go in the future i think space exploration will pay off

The truth is that the worlds biggest problem is over population vs. limited resource thus making the exploration of space a top priority if we want to deal with limited Earth questions.

This is more a question of human nature. Many thousands of years ago, the first man to explore the land beyond what he could see was probably asked the question: 'Why are you going there when we have problems here?' Why did men explore the oceans, when they had no idea what they would find, while they had issues to deal with at home? It is in our nature to explore the unknown, and to push the boundaries of our knowledge - if we fail to do this, then we stagnate as a species.

I do agree we should first meet the needs of humans on earth before spending money on exploring. Space has been there a long long time and can wait.

The world will always have problems, no matter how much money we throw at them. But, sooner or later, a giant asteroid is going to smack into the earth. Thats's inevitable. So we had better work on setting up self-sufficient settlements on Mars and other planets.

It'll pay off. We need to start colonizing new planets.

The bottom line here is not the exploration, per sey. Its world domination of a super power. First country to successfully plant nuclear weapons on another planet, will rule earth. Does this make sense?

Reaching for the stars is part of being human. It sets us apart from all other known beings, and is something we should, as a species, never abandon.

we've gotten a lot of technology from space exploration, and a lot of it benefits third world countries, such as efficient water filtration and purification, and freeze-dried foods that last longer and can be shipped overseas. not to mention the medical and other technological advances. also, space exploration doesn't get that much of the national budget. at this point it's probably less than 1%. it may seem like we spend a lot of money on it, but we probably spend more in one week on the "war on terror" than we do in one year of space exploration. imho, space exploration has already paid, off, and it pays off every day (especially if you like satellite TV, cell phones, internet anywhere in the world, etc.).

For the 2009 fiscal year The US Defense Department budget = $651.2 billion NASA budget = $17.6 billion Please watch this video ( especially the end ) it completely sums up my opinion. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_States http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2008/feb/HQ_08034_FY2009_budget.html

I think that space exploration is the most important thing we can be doing. That might sound crazy to some but weather we like to believe it or not, the human race cannot survive on earth forever. We are over populated, starving, polluted, and no matter how much we try to save it there isn't enough room nor resources here to sustain our ever evolving race forever. We need to find other planets that can sustain life or that have resource we can use. And, hopefully, we will find more intelligent life, maybe less maybe more than us. If more maybe we can learn from them, and if less maybe we can teach them to not make mistakes as we did.

As you likely understand, NASA’s annual budget hovers in the range of $17B to $18B per annum. That is for the entire human spaceflight, science, aeronautics, and exploration portfolios, as well as the upkeep of NASA’s institutions to execute those missions across 10 NASA centers around the country. But just look at what space exploration has already accomplished. The nature of NASA’s missions are doing things that are HARD to do, blazing new trails, taking risks that industry cannot afford to – and pulling on industry to accomplish these things. Therein lies the real economic and national security value for our country. The trails once blazed by NASA can then be taken up by industry, and new markets emerge. Look at the economic WINDFALL that comes from prior investments. A $100B plus per year satellite communications industry, GPS in just about every kind of new device, with geographic information systems to produce GoogleMaps types of resources, mobile comm and exploding bandwidth demand. How much do you depend on your cell phone? We wouldn't have those with out the space program putting satellites in space. Consider the COLLATERAL effect these kinds of technologies have on other industries. They make other sectors operate more efficiently, providing new markets for goods and services no one even DREAMED of when the trails were being blazed. And inspiring, yes, inspiring our youth to invest themselves in these fields of study. This is not a new phenomenon. Exploration has ALWAYS begotten new markets, always spurred commerce, as well as inspired ‘dreamers’ to think even more boldly. Constellation comes at the problem from a different direction. They operate at the edge of human performance, as they should… they are investing in blazing trails, doing what is hard, with the ultimate goal of expanding markets beyond LEO to the Moon and beyond. And in the process of reaching, they are pulling industry with them, and the collateral benefits we can’t even dream of infuse our nation’s future in the same fashion that NASA’s first 50 years has achieved. What a wonderful outcome to seed transportation services that reach all they way to the Lunar surface, to buy commodities there produced by commercial enterprises. NASA’s COTS program is just the beginning… JFK’s speech at Rice framed it as well as I have ever seen it framed… his famous ‘not because it is easy but because it is hard’ speech as most know it by. Read the whole thing. To understand the value of space exploration, to remind ourselves, one need not read further… http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical+Resources/Archives/Reference+Desk/Speeches/JFK/003POF03SpaceEffort09121962.htm To me, the value is not the destination, but rather the destination is the fulcrum around which we leverage human ingenuity to get to the real value – the economic value, the national security value, the scientific value, the geopolitical value – the betterment of our nation, our culture, our worldview. It is the ’silk road’ along the trails we blaze – and a core value around which the United States of America owes its existence and worldstanding.