The 2009 Federal Budget will be about $3.1 trillion. Of that, we'll spend approximately $17 billion on space exploration... 0.55 percent. So for every dollar we spend, we allocate half a penny to space exploration. Humans are an exploring species. We do it because of the psychological imperative, and we do it because it makes economic sense. Maybe Spain should have spent the money it used to finance Magellan on the poor in Barcelona. But Spanish exploration of the World returned the value of investment many thousands of times. So it will be with our exploration of the solar system. We will receive new technology, resources, and ultimately living space. We are going to Mars and beyond. It is only a question of when.