So true

I'm sorry @HippieChick58 lol, but I'm just torn with something like this. I know it's a sort of breakthrough and this stuff comes in small increments, but I always just expect there to be more to these excursions. Especially to justify the funding (~$830m) that can be used on helping people here on Earth.

@Piece2YourPuzzle I was not the original poster. I gave it a like; it is interesting and has provoked discussion. I agree, the money could be used for more crucial projects here on earth and in the US like feeding hungry, helping homeless and veterans, and fixing our crumbling infrastructure. But as I had nothing to do with the approval process, I hope they will find something to benefit us here on this tiny globe in some way in the not too distant future.

@HippieChick58 I know you weren't the original poster, but I saw the scowl smiley lol so I figured I would just explain my hesitancy on supporting something like this 100%.

@Piece2YourPuzzle Ah, the shrug. Gotcha. Yeah, your "eh" was not very enlightening. This is what I love about this site, the discussions we get into.

[spinoff.nasa.gov]
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@DoctoralZombie Yes, I don't doubt it. I don't doubt science either. I'm sure this will help some portion of society or all of society in the future. As I said it's incremental and seems very slow. It's why I said I'm on the fence about it. I know space exploration has helped with products we have today. This particular mission just seems weird. It's going to cost almost $1b and the chance of it actually being a success (as admitted by your post) is about 41%..........to record the temperature of 15 feet below Mars' surface and also record seismic waves to see if the core is liquid or solid. Forgive me if I'm not ecstatic. I'm sure it will be a good thing somehow, but I just probably expect more.

@Piece2YourPuzzle No worries at all?. I agree our country spends where it should not. I don't begrudge the NASA budget, though there are others that I do.

@DoctoralZombie There are definitely worse spenders in the government, and NASA is a tiny portion of the budget.