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Originally Posted by Molten
Scientific exploration should be done for scientific significance. I'd hope we have more reason to focus on Mars then "its new" when we haven't really learned all there is to know about the Moon(or even Earth). Is it really just for the wow factor? or is there something more to it?
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Human spaceflight is justified almost exclusively on the "wow" factor. Most recent exploration has. Shackleton, Byrd, Peary, Amundsen, Scott and others ventured into the frigid North and South for prestige. We raced the Soviets to the moon for prestige. We continue flying into space for prestige. We've got a lot to be proud of, so it'll take an incredible display of technology before the United States feels truly threatened in this leadership.
We could've launched the world's first satellite. We didn't, because we (or Eisenhower's administration, at any rate) didn't think it was worth the money. Then came Sputnik and public outcry. 83 days after receiving the go ahead, AMBA (von Braun's division that would later form the foundation for the Marshall Spaceflight Center) sent Explorer I into orbit.
Of course, there is lots of
Science that goes on at the ISS. The Shuttle also used to fly exclusively science missions. However, if you really wanted to just do straight up science, wouldn't it be easier to spend the $300-$500 million (per Shuttle launch) on University research grants?
Why not ask JFK why we went to the moon?
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Originally Posted by JFK at Rice University | September 12th, 1962*
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We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.
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http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical...rt09121962.htm