Justifying the Cost of Space Exploration

Below are two highlights from the Freakonomics Quorum "Is Space Exploration Worth the Cost?"


"It is true that, for every dollar we spend on the space program, the U.S. economy receives about $8 of economic benefit."
--G. Scott Hubbard, professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University and former director of the NASA Ames Research Center

"Still, for those who would moan that this money could be “better spent back on Earth,” I would simply say that all of this money is spent on Earth — it creates jobs and provides business to companies, just as any other government program does. You have to spend all of NASA’s money “on Earth.” There is no way to spend it in space — at least, not yet."
--Keith Cowing, founder and editor of NASAWatch.com and former NASA space biologist.