“So, if you cannot understand that there is something in man which responds to the challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it, that the struggle is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward, then you won’t see why we go...”
Yes, believe me, I understand, but my point is - That’s fine, unless you are using MY money to pursue YOUR struggle... I want a return on the investment. (So did Queen Isabella, etc.)
There are a great many things I don’t want my money used for; clearly that could be said of everyone, and it is extremely unlikely that you could find two people anywhere that would reach total agreement. One of the marvels of science is that the ROE may be unknown, but we as a society have decided that the value of knowing more about the universe is justified by the cost, simply “because it’s there.” You mentioned the Apollo missions - do you feel the result of that exploration was worth the result? Many don’t.