Michael Griffin, the newly appointed NASA director on why America should continue to spend billions on space exploration. This is probably the most believable explanation I have come across until now. This excerpt is taken from an article that appeared in The Space Review.
In October 2003 Griffin appeared before the full House Science Committee to discuss ''The Future of Human Space Flight''. Griffin, calling himself ''an unabashed supporter of space exploration in general, and of human space flight in particular,'' laid out his vision for the future of NASA. Griffin addressed the question of why the US should fund human space exploration. He dismissed the ''politically correct'' answers of things like spinoffs and educational benefits in favor of a broader rationale. ''What the U.S. gains from a robust, focused program of human space exploration is the opportunity to carry the principles and values of western philosophy and culture along with the inevitable outward migration of humanity into the solar system,'' he said. Such an effort, he noted, would be similar to the influence the British Empire had because of its mastery of the seas. ''Can America, through its mastery of human space flight, have a similar influence on the cultures and societies of the future, those yet to evolve in the solar system as well as those here on Earth? I think so, and I think our descendants will consider it to have been worth twenty cents per day.''

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