Has the knowledge and technologies obtained justified the cost of the space program

this is a question for my essay, and i do not get it at all. please explain or answer the question?/ thnx.

For an original approach to your essay, I suggest conveying it in another way: what would have been the cost of NOT having the technologies that spun off the space program?

- How many kids would be taking Science due to the fascination with NASA? Not just space and astronomy, but many other sciences as well? You don't hear many kids saying "I want to work for the NSF when I grow up!" What would happen to your country's (and others') economy if only (for example) HALF of the people wanted to study science (all sciences, not just space) in college?

- How would you get weather forecasts covering entire continents? Sure, you can make LOCAL predictions for a few hours. If you think Katrina was bad, then imagine what would happen if you didn't have storm warnings at all.

- How well do you do without a GPS?

- How well do you do without computers? You know, those things which use silicon semiconductors instead of ferrite memories?

- If you have family stationed in the Armed Forces abroad, how easy would you (and many other people) contact them?

Here's some material I've found with some basic Google-fu:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Budget
- http://www.fas.org/spp/eprint/jp_950525.…
- http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/hqlibrary/…
- http://www.hq.nasa.gov/pao/portal/usabil…

Yes. As it is right now, we have all of our proverbial eggs in one basket. If something happened today, such as a massive asteroid impact, we could be extincted. The only way to prevent the eventual extinction of the human species, is to spread out and colonize other planets. Therefore, any amount of money for the space program is not only justified, it is a necessity.

It was worth every cent.