> until everyone has adequate shelter, nutrition, and healthcare, and is free from violence and exploitation I.e. never. See my previous comment about staying

> until everyone has adequate shelter, nutrition, and healthcare, and is free from violence and exploitation I.e. never. See my previous comment about staying in Africa. But why are we only applying this "unaffordable luxury" logic to space exploration? Just the film industry spends $136 billion per year. Add videogames and tourism to that, novels and music and professional sport, and cancel all of it, until we have achieved this utopia of yours. It's not like we'll be without - the films and stories created so far will still be around. You might think it's different, because one is public spending, the other is private. But public spending is (or should be..) just spending we choose to do collectively, instead of individually. If 60% of voters decide a space program is worth pursuing, that's little different than if 60% of moviegoers buy a ticket. You can even pretend that 100% of your taxes go towards homeless shelters, while 100% of their taxes go towards space, if it makes you happy.