Those who claim that governments should not continue to devote resources to space exploration are wrong  Although most people' s lives are relatively unaffected by the direct consequences of space exploration, many modern technologies that have a tremendous impact on daily life -- e  g  , fiber optics, computers, and lasers -- are unexpected consequences of it
Society might have missed the benefits of these technologies if governments had not devoted resources to space exploration
The less practical the goal of a government- supported project, the more unexpected the consequences of that project.