1. Close NASA. 2. Close war in Iraq. 3. Lower taxes. 4. Balance budget. Anyone think any of this will happen?
Well, just to play devil's advocate, NASA's crowning achievement was 40 years ago... kinda says a lot in itself. It has been a diminishing return on investment ever since. We have gotten some benefit from NASA don't get me wrong but they do waste a lot of money also (just like the rest of govt). I like the pretty pictures from all of these missions and the Hubble Telescope though. They provide some good but the space shuttle missions have become more of a sight seeing trip for astronauts and performing very expensive science experiments.
While China, India and various up and coming countries going for space program, here we have people suggest to ditch NASA. This is actually sad. Go after Al-Quada and ditch the iraq war. At least, we need to cut its cost. Frankly, we can't afford it for whatever minimum security gain we might be getting. Balance the budget. If we don't do it, our creditor will force us to do it sooner or later.
There are lots of basic science coming out of NASA. All the details that you can look at on Mars can apply to Earth also. Sooner or later, whoever control the orbit will have a great military advantage because at some point, submarine will not be invisible anymore. Then, when there is a way to build something like space elevator and you are not there. All future and yet undiscover out of space business opportunities will not be yours. At least, you won't have the 1st mover advantage.
I think NASA has benefitted the economy greatly overall. We wouldn't have all those satellites out there doing all sorts of things that we now pay for if it wasn't for NASA.
When an asteroid comes hurdling towards earth, do you want to say "damn, should have kept NASA funded", instead you bot a cool 8-track player for your car (old commercial). I live in Clear Lake, home of Johnson Space Center, most of our friends work at NASA. Space is much more important than spending money on a personal vendetta, say like going to war with Iraq. There are more lives saved through space-borne technologies than wars. Imagine trying to target those taliban infidels with our cool satellite technology without the satellites. Without satellites, how could we have known about all those weapons of mass destruction??