Why Does the US Have a Civil Space Program?

BDew writes "The Presidents of the National Academy of Science and the National Academy of Engineering have commissioned a study on the Rationale and Goals of the US Civil Space Program. In short, the Academies are asking why the nation has a civil space program (including human, robotic, commercial, and personal spaceflight). The study is intended to provide a strategic framework for the nation's activities in space that can provide consistent guidance in an increasingly interconnected world. The members of the study committee are interested in the views (positive or negative) of the general public, particularly those people with a scientific and/or technological interest."

Comments

Why not have a better place?

[tjstork]

Just cut that shit out now and pay what is needed to hold this place in the world.

Why hold this place in the world? Let's see, right now the USA is spending about 600 billion a year bringing democracy to two countries that hate us, protecting allies that won't fight with us, all so that all of these countries can dump their goods onto our soil and take our jobs. Did you know that prior to World War II, the USA had FIFTY PERCENT of all the manufacturing capacity on the planet. Now we're down to less than 20%. This whole big standing army to keep our "allies" safe is symptomatic of a standing decline in the fortunes of the USA relative to the rest of the world that has taken place since World War II.

Enough already.

Seriously. What good does NATO do the USA? IF Europe wants to have another war, if North Korea wants to invade South Korea, China invade Taiwan, or Japan China, or vice versa, why should the average American even care. It's not our job to police the world. Let the world police itself. All these other nations scream diplomacy while safely under the American blanket, well, let's take that blanket off and let them fend for themselves.