> What's the expected return?
Knowledge?
How would you value the early experiments that eventually led to, say, germ theory on a monetary basis?
Knowledge?
How would you value the early experiments that eventually led to, say, germ theory on a monetary basis?
What did spending billions getting to the moon get us, bragging rights? What tangible benefit have we gotten from the space station and other space missions?
> Well-known products that NASA claims as spinoffs include memory foam (originally named temper foam), freeze-dried food, firefighting equipment, emergency "space blankets", DustBusters, cochlear implants, LZR Racer swimsuits, and CMOS image sensors.
Plenty more in this well written list:
Relativity gives us GPS, for example.