[Hoot Gibson]

The machine is cool and it is somewhat interesting as to what could be beyond our planet but I am one of those who doesn't think as much money should be spent on the space program.

I have a really hard time with millions of dollars being spent on a piece of equipment that is crashed into the moon or something they can never retrieve.

IMO, the money could be spent somewhere else.

As this country withdraws from the space race, other countries are redoubling their efforts. If for no other reason than national security, we need to maintain our lead in space related technology. Think about how much damage China could do to this country by nudging a city block-sized asteroid so that its trajectory would land it on along one of our coasts. What would be the reasonable response to such a "natural disaster" that might kill millions and cripple our power grid?

It is really short sighted to see spending on space technology as a waste of money, IMO. If the technology does not already exist to turn a comet or asteroid into a man made disaster, it will in the not so distant future. Compared to what it would cost China or Russia to build a conventional military capability to threaten us, waging a surprise attack from space would be cheap.