Not to troll or anything, but do you really think that fixing Hubble with your tax dollars is a good idea? Sure we get pretty pictures of galactic bodies, but we have enough problems with debt in this country and fixing an unnecessary telescope isn't going to help that situation. I vote for freezing NASA's funding until the U.S. is back on it's feet financially.

I'm like 90% sure that the Hubble telescope is actually a big laser designed to fry whoever tries to call our tab. We've been using a computer to generate all those images.

On a serious note, NASA has helped create some of the most useful technology on the planet, and is a relatively minor expenditure. If we're gonna start slashing costs, there are easier places to do it.

How about massive scientific data on how the universe works for starters?

There is no reason for them not to fix Hubble. They could have fixed GRO too, but after Challenger, they aren't about to fix anything with hydrozene on it.

I guess it depends on your own priorities. I, for one, see all that money being funneled into NASA and wonder what immediate good it could have done for the American people. Lower taxes perhaps? But I digress. As far as your reasoning goes, for all the data NASA has gathered, where are all the life altering answers? We now know the universe is massive, expanding, and that we are totally alone. Wow. Let's leave it at that and get back to helping people.

Yes. Science and discovery are important. Also, inspiring kids and adults to scientific careers and exploration is important.

I'm exhuasted by the mentality that valuable gain can only be measured in a bank account and a physical accounting of product.

Yeah, because all that bloated spending of late has been all about "helping people". I've got a laundry list of billions of dollars of spending that should be cut before we get in the ballpark of spending on science.

The universe outside our planet is a giant physics lab, and our only means of interacting with it is via astromy. Ever wonder how we found evidence for, say, Pauli's Exclusion Principal? How about gravity...modeling that seems pretty useful. Quantum mechanics? The US wouldn't be the same if not for using telecopes to study Mercury. That whole relativity thing led us to the Atom Bomb. I'd say that was pretty life-altering.

My opinion as well. My reference to the privatization of space was on the 'space travel' side, but I didn't make that clear.

Just pulled up the budget figures. NASA's annual budget for 2006 was US$16.45 billion. That's less than one thirtieth of what we spent on the Department of Health & Human Services (US$543.2 billion) in 2004.

EDIT: Why do you have to be so smart (and so fast), Kat?

I just think it is a shame that we didn't have the balls to fix the Gamma Ray Observatory. My buddies and I got blind, stinking drunk the night we had to take that down.

I can certainly appreciate that. The fiscal irresponsibility of this administration in particular is infuriating.

The problem, though, is that the third rails of politics on both sides of the aisle make it very easy to spend money on crap that will not bring about returns. I have to give Clinton and the '94 Congress credit for tackling entitlement spending with welfare reform. I just wish a Republican president could do the same for defense spending. Both sides will insist that their third rail is necessary to enrich or protect our well being, but the fact of the matter is that spending in both arenas is far beyond the point of diminishing returns.

If anything, we should be spending more money on basic research at the expense of defense and entitlements. Projects like a new fighter plane for the Air Force are entirely political. We need another fighter like we need another Maginot Line.

Yes, but ASIDE from all of that, what have the Romans ever done for us?

Yes, but how does the hubble repair play into any of those? I believe it just looks at "pretty stars"

I think that bill the president signed into law the other day authorizing stricter immigration enforcement and the option to declare martial law and call up National Guard forces to quell domestic disturbances without authorization from Congress or state governors has a slightly higher price tag. And with the benefit of creating the first American dictatorship in the country's history (well, maybe the second), it's a bargain at twice the price. But still, probably not as beneficial to humanity as a whole as space exploration.

But maybe politics isn't your thing. That's cool. How about plastic? Do you like plastic? Here's a challenge: count the number of plastic items you touch and/or use today. Start now, you don't have to go back all the way to turning off your alarm clock. Post the number here later, when you click off your TV and head to bed. Then sleep on the thought of what your life would be like without those things. Because NASA helped make plastic possible.

NASCAR (lighter cars go faster), satellite TV, cell phones, most modern cancer drugs (sh*t, most modern drugs period), Tang, solar power, weather prediction, that computer you're using to access the internet, the internet, natural disaster prediction and avoidance and even satellite imagery and national defense (missiles, anyone?). These are just the things I can think of off the top of my head that America's space program has contributed to over the years. And that's not even counting what somebody already mentioned: encouraging young people to pursue careers in science and to carry on the work of making incredible, beneficial scientific advances, whether in space or down here on Earth.

It galls me to see this kind of ignorance of the benefits of science and space exploration. And I'm from the South. I should, be used to it, but I'm not. To reap the benefits on a daily basis and yet be completely ignorant of the source ... it blows my mind. Perhaps we actually should scrap NASA and spend the money on better schools.

For most of us, that's absolutely correct. The data obtained during our lifetimes will most likely not mean much to us, but the knowledge gained from it should serve as a stepping stone for space exploration in the generations that follow us.

And you should be more specific when asking questions. If you had asked, "How does the Hubble Telescope justify NASA's budget to improve our daily lives in the here and now?" it would have taken me a bit longer to reply.

I don't know that it will take that long for us to realize benefits from the basic science that is gained from a megapowerful measuring and observation device. It didn't take very long for folks to figure out that microorganisms that Anton Leuenhouk found with his primative microscope were potentially dangerous. Hubble allows us to put a lot of things into the category of "know that we don't know" instead of "don't know that we don't know". That's a pretty freaking HUGE jump.