The Mars Curiosity mission is unlikely to soon reveal an outer space secret that changes the way you live.
Critics say the Mars rover — now determining whether the red planet at some point harbored life —is fiscally irresponsible as the national debt approaches $16 trillion. Comparatively, the federal government has spent a few billion dollars exploring Mars. That is a lot of money, but not compared to other government programs. Take for instance that the U.S. Defense Department's proposed 2013 budget — in large part spent on weapons — is worth $619.9 billion. The United States easily spends enough money to fill the world with deadly weapons.
A fraction of that amount should be used to explore other planets, because peaceful space exploration is a benefit to the entire race. And maybe that is a hint at what the future of space travel includes. If far-reaching travel becomes too much of a financial burden for any one nation, why not combine efforts globally? More resources and better technology will most certainly lead to faster results.
But until that day comes Americans should continue diligent discovery efforts in space.
(City Editor Rick Kazmer can be reached at email@example.com. Read his blog, "The Kazmer Report," at firstname.lastname@example.org. Smartphone users can access his blog by scanning the QR code at left.)