How important is space exploration in today's age?

[AB Asks]

The moon landing in 1969 was a huge event and signified the pinnacle of man's achievement. These days however the business of space exploration saps a lot of cash without any new boundaries being broken. Should space programmes be shut down? Or is there still a case for them to continue; the possibility of landing on Mars for example?

[WaldoMcFroog]

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Society-and-Cul ture/Question442977.html

[Loosehead]

Yes as Wlado shows this has been gone into recently, come on ED, keep up!

[dot.hawkes]

I know I read that the other day and contributed , do you actually read the site Mr/Ms Asks?

[Robb Phoenix]

dear AB
Space programmes are one of the most important frontiers for the development of humans but unfortunately it has been neglected after the cold war.
Do you know that America would not be a superpower if not for the advances in space programmes?
Space programmes are actually not getting enough funds lately as we are much closer to landing on Mars than we were to Moon in 1969.
But the lack of will and competition hampers us.
Advancements in the frontiers of space and colonisation of extra terrestrial planets may be the only viable chance to permenantly ensure our existtance in the universe.
Space programmes can never trully be shut down (will you be willing to permenantly switch off your T.V?? ).Most experiments conducted in the Space-Station help in advancements in a wide spectrum of fields.

[Romeo]

Space exploration must continue. It is our next step, to go beyond our own little planet. There is actually no reason, other than the bizarreness of capitalist economics, why we can't feed the world AND go into space. It's not that the earth lacks sufficient food and resources to go around. But in any case we have to see what's out there. There may have seemed little reason to explore Antarctica and the Arctic (what were they hoping to find?), but it had to be done.