kaf: One cannot put a price on dreams. I have listened to many children dream of traveling, or living in space. The stars, like our children, are the future. The cost in dollars is trivial compared to the dreams, the hopes, the inspiration the space program can give. There are other benefits. Technology advances. National Spirit, and a sense of renewed pride in America. A Billion Dollars? A very small cost indeed! Especially when in the longterm, our survival could very well depend on it! Kaf

drmorris: ABSOLUTELY NOT! I would spend the money on one of the most neglected groups in this country: poor children. Although money alone isn't a cure for anything, further investment needs to be made in our nation's public schools, the prevention of child abuse, the creation of adolescent health centers, and children & youth social service agencies, for starters. I would also ensure that EVERY pregnant woman received adequate prenatal care, to reduce our country's shockingly high low birthweight and infant mortality rates.

Dickj: You might as well dump it in a black hole. Space exploration is the continuation of an age old pursuit. Only in our case, the colonization of space is all thats left in the colonization race. We screwed up every other effort to colonize earth and continue to do so. A billion dollars is the ultimate waste when it is used to further the quintessential white man's welfare. Except for military spending -- Nasa is a richly subversive black hole of monetary waste. There is a real simple answer to the question of spending a billion dollars. If there is one child on earth who gets up in the morning and has nothing to eat -- no government money for space. If there is one elderly person who misses lunch for need of assistance -- no money for the space contractors. If there is one person who cannot qualify for the space jobs due to education -- educate first -- then to space. I'll go out on a limb and press a bet. If we were to explore space it would be to locate a dump for nuclear waste. Or the search for expendable power. We cannot continue to use up the worlds we inhabit. We have to learn to live here before we go there!

AlMiller: I never forgot the fascination with the space program I had in the 60s and 70s, and how disappointed I was when we stopped lunar exploration. Before you start harping about how the money would be better spent on social programs and other bullshit (and I do not favor spending cuts for social programs either) keep in mind that the Internet (originally the technology-sharing Arpanet), the computer you are using to fill out the survey, and even your digital watch were derived from space program technology. Spending $1 billion for a new development that could revolutionize transportation as we know it is chump change -- less than the cost of a single B-1 bomber. The X-32 project could be the most exciting thing to happen since the Apollo project. Chances are, the military already has started a similar project in the Nevada desert anyway.

LaJuett: Well, I should start by stating that I'm a fan of space travel and have been since Apollo. That said, I am feeling that right now, given the deficit and the decrepitude of many cities (hey, I live near DC - our Pothole Capital) and our health care system, $1 billion dollars is rather a lot to put down, when we already have a space shuttle that works. It is clear that we are not going to colonize the Moon or Mars, let alone the stars, anytime soon. Less expensive unmanned vehicles can do an excellent job of science work, and I recall that some of these vehicles have been cancelled by Congress (one in particular, I cant recall the exact name, was going to some of the planets and/or an asteroid). So what gives? I say keep the money for more unmanned vehicles and for domestic uses, for now.

formicacid: Only $1 billion? We spent $50 billion on the war w/ iraq and didnt get any new tech outta that. Every time we spend money on space we get new tech, and i'd like to see any american live w/o teflon or advanced polymers & ceramics. give 'em a trillion, i'll pay the taxes.

Applecheeks: Here's an idea, force the IRS to find the Trillions they "can't account for" and take the Billion out of that! Another source could be to drop a few pork barrel projects in West Virginia (the pork barrel capitol, hands down)...ought to find a Billion there easily! At the rate we are polluting THIS planet, we are going to NEED a better space exploration to find us another planet to emigrate to once this one is no longer viable (sooner then you might think).

JerryLS: $1 billion for the next step in space is fine but we need to stop using the shuttle, now! The current shuttle program is falling apart and worker morale is low. We are asking for another disaster.

ChadJuettner: We should be spending a lot more than what we are on the space program. With what we're doing to our world, I believe we should be going balls out looking for a place to go after ours is drained. Also, I could swear that I read somewhere that NASA grossly overspends when developing/building shuttles. Yes, we have a lot of problems down here, but they don't necessesarily need millions of dollars to solve. A little intelligence and common sense should be all it takes for our problems.

GolfGizmo: What do you think those folks who are not only too poor to have a computer to read this silly question on, but are also hungry and living in a near hell might say? As long as people are suffering to the degree that they are, I think not. It's just about as intelligent as spending money on fireworks.

Shazam420: In perspetive, the 1995 military budget was nearly 300 billion dollars. I'm sure that the one-billion quote will grow, as do all federal projects, but I think it is worth it. I echo "kaf" and his sentiments about the greater rewards.

Thrifty: 1 billion dollars to explore space. Ha! Why are we spending so much money to make problems in space when things are all screwed up down here? 1 billion dollars is enough to give a decent meal to every single person in America. And since millions of Americans don't need government handouts, the money could be distributed worldwide. 1 billion dollars could build hundreds of homes and shelters for people on Earth. But what do we do? We send it into space where the shuttles can discover useless facts like the effect of weightlessness on cockroaches (okay I made that one up, but it seems like NASA type behavior.) And if anyone has seen "The Day the Earth Stood Still" they rezalize another concern. It coulld be possible that the rest of the universe is at peace, and by spreading into space we would spread our barbaric ways. If I were in charge, NASA wwould get only enough funding to launch sattelites into spaace. After all, the orbiting satellites give us TV and show us information here on Earth.

hitzman: If the USA is to keep the LeadingEdge in exploring the universe, than we as citizens must be willing to pay for it. What will happen if we do not enter the 21st Century as the front runner? Lets not wait until it is too late. Space is the last frontier, is it worth the $1 billion? Yes!

Saulm: Yeah, the space program is cool and I think spending on it isn't unwise. NASA is one of the only government programs that really is geared towards the future. Lots of the problems we are having on the ground could be fixed or minimized if we taught people a little bit of old-fasion justice. Put it this way, we can help fight crime by loving your childeren and raising them right. We can't launch a rocket to space, that's what the space program's for.

jkapust: The alien race that visits us uses high- technology in their space crafts (UFOs). The more we spend on space-tech, means that we are evolving to study other planets just as the aliens who wisit us are doing now.

loose: For $1 billion only a very few will ride,but why get hostile about its alleged benefits or ills?

amie: funny, until i read formicacid's statement, i, too was going to mention the little things that we take for granted. (i.e., teflon). we must realize that throwing money at problems won't get them solved, and concentrating on only one problem will just make the others grow. why would a child strive to achieve education if there's no dream to follow after? when i was in elementary school, i worshipped astronauts. i even wrote to one, and she wrote back. do you know what that kind of attention can mean to a child? should we do away with professional atheletes? our cities spend millions in taxpayer money to support the various stadiums and other peripherals. but we need the heroes. for the children. go nasa!!

tony: I thought it was too much, but then I read some of the comments here and I realized that if it weren't for space travel we wouldn't have teflon. What the hell would we do if we didn't have teflon? Phew. I'm glad that somebody pointed that out. I didn't realize that there were so many dishpan hands on the line here.

devesh: First, I would use the 1 billion towards our national debt, which is now hitting the trillions. In the past, industry has benifited from the space program. Composites, Thinsulate, and a whole horde of new commodities and technologies. Industry should be made to cough up the 1 billion and then be allowed access to the benefits of the billion. If industry is made to shoulder the cost, then I am sure the bill will come down to $500 million automatically. If industry wants to profit from the technology advance gained by participating in the research then they should cough up. Why should the tax payer shoulder the cost and industry gain the benefit.

sorahl: YES!!!! We need to invest in our space program much more than we have. It is the future, after we screw up this planet! Where can we go, if we havent gained some expertise in space travel/living!?!?!?!

KMorrison: In the '70s, we went to the moon. We haven't been back since. It sure is costing an awful lot more to travel so much closer to home....

TBlackmore: Money spent on space exploration has already paid us back many times over the nitial investment costs. Yes a billion dollars is a lot of money, how much does an aircraft carrier cost? or a B1 bomber?How does it compare relative to what some blue chip industry ceo's get paid, or some professional ball players.

amie: sorry to take up more space (no pun intended), but all this talk of "ruining our planet" has me a bit concerned. are we so self important as to assume that we alone can completely destroy something billions of years in the making? we can't kill this planet; this planet will kill us first. let's be honest here; we're not talking about destroying earth, we're talking about destroying humankind. earth will be okay, she always has. the earth is a living thing. it changes, it adapts. it reacts to events to bring back equilibrium...like a daisyworld. save the planet? hah! save the humans.

davidaltmaier: Yes I think it is wise because some day this new space shuttle may find a way to have life in outer space and it will pay off.

buch1: A billon dollars can seem like a lot of money. But the space program has proven itself to be an investment, not a waste of money. Sure there are many important causes to spend money on. And when you look at the many investments our country needs to make, the space program can seem a waste compared to the direct importance of the others (education, health care, feeding the population, Etc . . . ). But, the space program is not necessarily an example of wasted tax payer money. The benefits (Yes, Teflon among many others) far outweigh the costs of the program. We should instead concentrate on more relevant and obvious wastes of money by our government. Would not the several million dollars (100 million = 1 billion) spent on helping Coke (trademark) and Pepsi (trademark) as well as many other companies advertise in foreign countries be better spent on text books or computers for schools, or Prenatal care for economically challenged

FLOID: Yes. The one billion dollars "plunged" into the creation of new means of "exploring space" will have positive short and long term affects. In the Short Term, jobs and innovation will stimulate the economy. The jobs generated alone are sufficient reason, however the innovation too should add to the benefits. Nearly every major product of the recent decades has its tie to the space program - from velcro to lasers. The long term benefits include the discovery of the means to avoid the crisis our world could be facing. Space has always held the most promise for solving and preventing the silly messes our humanity involves us in. Not a bad deal for less than a percent of a percent of our glorious budget. love and admiration, Steve Rutledge