Why should we go to space? What’s out there that we care about anyway?

“Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, Or what's a heaven for?” — Robert Browning

I can hardly wait for the new (very expensive) James Webb telescope deployed in space near the Earth–Sun L2 Lagrangian point outside of an orbit of our planet and thus more stable to reach much farther than our grasp. I consider such primary research essential and not extravagant.


Is it gauche to point out that the decision to tax people to go to space is very political, Phil.