The ongoing space exploration efforts will also serve to inspire up and coming young scientists. Their efforts will help to advance technologies across the board.

Sounds straight out of science fiction, I'm not saying that this would never happen but personally I'd rather live in the present rather than be worrying about something that may never happen in the near future.

I am sure you will be happy if Obama spent all tax dollars in making sure world doesn't end in 2012 (after all, it could wipe out humanity as a whole) than fixing health care, education and so forth. I am not against space exploration or anything, I just believe saving lives today is far more worthwhile than worrying about the black-swan type disaster that could happen.

In response to this reply: Ok, I'm not the original poster, but here goes. The continued existence of the entire human race may depend on space exploration and subsequent colonization. One comet or black-swan type disaster could wipe out humanity as a whole. This is not without precedent (dinosaurs).

Each time we leave this planet we punch a whole in our ozone layer that can't be repaired! Some things were meant to be left alone. Simple education like teaching man to fish and read (not like our socialist education system here in America) will improve life and decerease deficits on this earth! Socialism is not the answer!