http://www.physorg.com/news10617.html

Might we not add an honest postscript here and state that the reason NASA has suddenly experienced such a budgetary windfall is that they ,NASA, have taken an abstinence pledge to never again undertake a mission of peace. Henceforth, all NASA missions will primarily incorporate military weaponry usefulness or they won"t go at all.

This is just plain stupid. Here we are at the brink of self-destruction from environmental and social issues, and the government is giving more money to space exploration? Space will always be there. There is absolutely no reason why we cant visit mars in 20 years time instead. So why are we spending precious resources on going to these places when that money could be used to fund renewable energy research for example? The publics interest is hardly what it was in 1969, and there is no economically valid reason for supporting the ISS or the trips to the moon.