[Crowbob]

I am.

Let me take a shot at it.

How can somebody not see the value of expanding our knowledge of the universe. Or any knowledge for that matter. It's fundementally human nature to explore, expand and seek out new life, new worlds and go where no man has gone before.

How can somebody not understand the enormous benefits gleaned from our thirst for knowledge. Microprocessors, telemetry, rockets. Science! Let's do it again!

If it were up to Luddites like you, we'd still be watching TV in the dark!

Phhht. The cost of our space exploration is minuscule, relatively speaking. And look at all the jobs created by NASA scientists and specialty instrument manufacturers alone!

And medicine. Oh the wonderful things we've learned about the human body, about survival and taking a dump in zero gravity!

And all that is material. Think of the non-material, the dreams our astronauts of the future have that are sparked by the wonders of space! The mind expanding notions of dark matter, space-time, blackholes and strings. Relativity!

Mankind. Oops. Humankind is nothing without the very thing that makes us human-our minds and our hunger to understand and comprehend the vastness of our universe.