[ed martin]

Great series on the evolution of space exploration on the Science Channel. "Space exploration" was born out of necessity during the early stages of the Cold War. With the atomic bomb came the challange developing effective technology to deliver the goods to the enemy.

Initially the Soviets had the edge. They were developing rocket technology at a furious pace and were the first to launch a satellite that orbited the earth. The potential of this new technology in terms of a first strike preemptive nuclear attack was not lost by American leaders and the American military. So the race for space was born.

Make no mistake, NASA is not all about warm and fuzzy esoteric exploration, but was really an offshoot of military ambition and national security.

What are tangable benifits? You are joking right? Just about all of the modern marvelous technology, the computer you are comunicating with, digital, satellite comunications and geo satellite used for weather forcasting, navigation, smart bomb tech, etc. etc. etc.. I mean you don't believe all this technology just happened out of thin air do you?

If you look at history, a lot of technology was developed out of necessity. You guys do recall the World Wars right? Aviation technology(jet engine), nuclear science, radar. The earliest computers were to developed to calculate artillery trajectories etc. not to mention transmitting and decifering enemy coded communications. Jeez, I figured you Porsche guys would have been all over this.