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Well I did consider your point, Colin, and it seems that at present, interplanetary voyaging doesn't get other than to Mars, and that at great expense, usually ending in disaster! Unmanned spacecraft of-course! But even if one got to Mars, what would one od there? Couldn't even plant a tree!
But the recession has probably cancelled all further space research in terms of interplanetary discovery, and I think that investment is usually concentrated on satelite technology, which involves man-made objects rotating around the Earth. So at the end of the day, Man's space research does have fantastic results, but only when considering the Earth as the centre and the satelites rorating around us, to satisfy our immediate earthly demands!
In this sense, space research has proven useful.