Not to trash the thread, but without even spending the time to search for it, I bet there has to be a thread about how much more productive human space exploration is. Also, that 104bil, it's not money that's just magically coming out of some new tax bill, it's all out of NASA's budget. If you do a simple breakdown, that's 8 billion a year over the next 13 years, and a large majority of that is into the design of the new rocket which is kinda sorta absolutely needed anyway.
I suppose I could get all philosophical and romantic about space travel that 104 billion going back into the economy, employing people, and producing valuable scientific advancements isn?t exactly a waste.
