We can dare to dream of the stars again, if only we can achieve this small thing.

[Annik]

There is no excuse for not funding space exploration. Nothing is more important than that. Our entire world's existence counts for nothing if, as Mosrhun said, we all die out on this mote of dust without ever stepping foot off this planet.

The greatest barrier to diversifying away from planet earth is not lack of space exploration. It is the lack of the basic science foundation needed to provide a genuinely affordable mass access to space. There has been no major improve to space access technology since 1957. Solution to this problem likely require sustained founding of many fields of basic research. Funding actual cursory space exploration itself would probably not contribute a whole lot to overcoming this real barrier.

If you want true mass access to space as soon as possible, you probably would do better by funding broad based applied physics research than by funding probes to mars.

Neil deGrasse Tyson speaks a lot about this, but we need to convince the world science matters again. How many kids still want to be astronauts and not douches on the Jersey Shore? If we can fund space programs and get humanity excited about it again, we can start little scientists off young and with promise.