[Utah-astronomy] NASA's purpose?

Hi Chuck, On Mon, 26 Jan 2004, Chuck Hards wrote:

Not a purpose at all, but a nice spin-off. My point was that "scientific advancement" by itself really isn't sufficient reason to do anything.

If not scientific advancement, what constitutes "sufficient reason" for the spending of taxpayer dollars on NASA? In other words, what do you (we?) expect to "get" out of our collective spending on NASA's activities? Chris