Should NASA's budget be increased?

[Deus Naturae]

No, and I for one am glad that something like Starfleet will probably not exist any time soon.

[Deus Naturae]

If anyone can justify why NASA should even exist, let alone have its budget doubled because MUH SPACE I'd be happy to listen.

The numerous innovations they create alone are enough to justify a funding increase in my view. Furthermore, I don't like the way you so casually dismiss space exploration as a way to get points among the cynical crowd as you hate on people who want to explore the universe and get answers. Would you have opposed the Homestead Act because of "MUH WEST"?

Right, but by that logic we should be praying for a third world war since plenty of side-innovations come out of that. Focusing on tangential possible benefits isn't convincing.

Please, Oak, you're better than this.

Starry-eyed (sorry) talk about "exploring the universe" or whatever isn't good justification for spending billions of dollars as far as I'm concerned - what are we exploring? Does it make a tangible difference to anyone's life if we know that there's a certain type of rock on the moon? Particularly when the private sector space industry is rapidly becoming a thing...

If we don't have stars in our eyes, then what will fill the void? Dust and dirt and the inexorable creep of the rising oceans? That new rock we find on the moon could power our civilization for decades to come as the human race spreads itself out among the stars. And billions of dollars is nothing to the United States budget, especially when it helps to increase our knowledge of the universe and our place in it - unlike you, I am a believer in the idea of knowledge for knowledge's sake, and that seems to be the point where we differ, going our separate ways as the cynical apathete and the idealistic (for idealism is what got us where we are today) dreamer. Without dreams, we wouldn't have anything to strive for.

In other words, you want the government to spend other peoples' money to fulfill your own (highly subjective) dreams and ideals about space?

[Deus Naturae]

I don't think the private sector can really exist without the government.

Are you talking about private sector space exploration/research or just in general? Because I fail to see how the aforementioned private sector industry would cease to exist without NASA.