[SteveMcKing]

"I just wish that robotic craft had been around in 1492...that way the Spanish royals could have sent a probe over to see what the New World looked like rather than sending humans. That certainly would have worked out better."

Luckily we have robots in 2006, and those risks are not necessary. The Spanish may have used them too, if they had them, which says nothing of their sponsoring a trip without robots as was actually done.

Now you may suggest that I don't recognize sarcasm, or that yours was so overpowering that I should have relented and stop using logic because I lack your (non-) humor.

[wxdawg]

My point, of course, is that humans explore..it is part of our genetic code. And the thrill of exploring the unknown is not satisfied by seeing pictures sent back from probes. Why else would we have journeyed to the South Pole..or climbed Mt. Everest...or have gone to the moon.

Of course, the payback in tech transfer from our space activities has more than paid for itself. In the 1970s..after the height of Apollo...the average return to the GDP by efficiencies gained from tech transfer was 23 dollars for each dollar invested in NASA. By the 1990s, that figure had dropped to 7 to 1, but still impressive. Of all of our federal investments, the NASA investment has been one of our best. Just ask any stroke victim learning how to regain their balance using machines first developed for astronauts returning from space...or a person whose life was saved by early detection from an MRI. I could go on, but I know there are people on this board who would refuse to support our human space endeavors no matter what evidence of their necessity is given...I guess they would just rather turn that part of the human journey over to the Chinese.