For the "Space is a waste, save the earth first" crowd (no disrespect intended there)...

Let's say we achieve the goals of actually buying the planet a coca cola and bringing in perfect peace and harmony with nature.  We clean up the environment, live healthy--and an extinction event level asteroid smacks into the planet.

Everything you sweated for is gone.  The earth is covered in clouds that rain acid and sulfur, plants and forests, animals and sea life die and humans don't survive.

It isn't "one or the other", it's both.  We need space development for the same reasons we need ecological progress.  It's a miracle life ever got here and more of one it has made it this far.  It won't last forever if we just sit here smiling.

We could take all of our planet's life to otherwise barren planets when we go or we can all stay here and wait for a random event to stop it all.

One day we will have to leave earth and it's no less urgent to begin planning and preparing  for that than it is planning for  long-term global ecology.

if you want to stay on earth to solve all it's problems... step 1 is... for the governments of the world to put aside their petty differences, THIS includes religious differences, either they become tolerant or religion in general is abolished because they can't get along.

step 2 put all the resources of the world together in 1 pool to develop all countries on the right path, that includes developing underdeveloped (3rd world and 2nd world) countries.

Either we humans unite or we fall, united we stand, divided we fall as a species.

Edit: me I'm both for uniting the world and getting into space, two birds one stone thing again.

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wow, all those who say SETI is a waste of time and money, or that we should be colonising planets ourselves first. how narrow minded are they. I am glad they don't run the country because if they did we would all still be living in caves and using sticks to light fires.

A big part of science is knowing how to allocate your time and resources wisely.

How's this for a scenario. The wow signal has never been repeated or so they say. Kepler finds 1,235 more exo-planets and 54 of them are in the habitable zone. Seti's funding gets canceled just as they were about to begin monitoring those newly discovered worlds. Was something found? Interesting question.

Obama does not solely run the government It was a senator from Florida who drafted the new bill, I believe. In any case, Obama did not scrap plans to go to the moon. He scrapped the Constellation Program, because it was way behind schedule, underfunded, and way over budget. He also increased NASA's funding by $6 billion. His plan would have NASA rely on private companies for shorter journeys, like to the ISS and Earth orbit, while NASA would focus on more distant goals like the moon, Mars, and asteroids.

Also, since there seems to be some confusion, SETI as a whole is not being put into "hibernation." One telescope array is. SETI still exists, SETI@Home is still going, and they have other telescopes to use. The Allen array was just one of their primary ones. http://archive.seti.org/pdfs/ATA-hibernation.pdf

Wow...outlaw religion. 

Human nature is the problem--specifically the desire for power and control. Ceasers,  Hitler's and Stalin's and Mao's and French Revolutionaries all used the "once we control religion it will all be good" approach  but the problem was the cure was worse than the disease.  Some use guns, some use wealth, some use religion--the motive and the man are the thing, not the venue.

What's really implied here is, "this is what I believe and I think I am  right so let's all take the rights away from everyone who doesn't agree with me". 

The same mantra of every totalitarian government and dictator that's ever been.

If you really want to be fair and balanced in this scheme, do this:  make public proclamation of religious dogma a crime but then also make public proclamations against other person's religious beliefs a crime too.

Far better yet, lets legislate globally locking away away anyone who proposes removing the rights or life of other persons because of their personal beliefs--that will solve both sides of the issue.

This has nothing to do with finding alien life or settling space.  It's just contemporary, hip bigotry.

It's in all our interests to work to go on as a species.  As to Monk's "built in destruct" date possibility of mankind--maybe--but I personally won't just lie down and wait for it.  Might as well go down fighting.  I'm not so young myself but I want others to have a chance even when I am gone.  I won't see expansion into space--others are the ones who will need it.

That's just silly. If an asteroid hits us it's natural selection and it sucks to be us then. The fear of an asteroid hitting us is no excuse for not taking care of the planet nor would our efforts had been a waste of time. We live here...and we...one would assume...would want to make sure we don't die from neglect of our planet due to our own stupidity. We've already been given a planet to live on...free and clear...we don't need to spend billions to fly to some barren planet when we have a perfectly good one right under our feet.

Actually it's just the one...the one under your feet. Space is neither a necessity or practical goal...at least not for most of us average humans without the money for the ticket...as much as it is a curiosity...and the rich aren't going to build it themselves...they'll let you do that and wave goodbye as they leave.

And what's to stop an asteroid from hitting the barren one you just chose to land on? Oops! And just think...your last vision will be of the one you just left...man...wouldn't that suck! The grass isn't always greener on the other planet.

And that's some lofty goal of taking all of our planets life to some other planet...seriously...what are you smoking...I'd love to have some! But really...we have more than enough problems taking care of a planet that's already habitable and you think the same people are going to go to some remote barren planet with no water, no air, basically nothing other than dirt and dust and create a livable planet from scratch?

So again...we have no business even thinking about going into space much less planing anything...it ain't gonna happen. We really need to get our act together and grow up and take responsibility of the planet we live on. Or you can just dream on.

I'd like to point out that an asteroid hitting us is not natural selection, it's just incredibly unlucky .

Anyway, you're right that fear of an asteroid or some other disaster is not an excuse to trash our current planet. But that is not a valid reason not to go into space either. The fact that we are even having this conversation is proof of that. Most of modern technology has its roots in the Space Race of the Cold War. Computers, cell phones, GPS, weather forecasting, the list goes on an on. Computers and telemetry existed before the space race, but neither would be as far as they are without the resources poured into them during the space race.

What exactly makes something "practical?" We've been going to space for decades, that seems rather practical to me. And what are the rich going to not be building? They won't be making very much money if only a very few can afford to go to space.

You'd have still travelled an enormous distance and landed safely on that planet. That's still one hell of an impressive acomplishment. That should make you happy enough

The goal is generally to find a planet that has water and air before colonizing it . And I would not expect the people who screwed up/are screwing up this planet to be the ones colonizing other planets. I would expect that the people going would be the ones who actually have some idea of what they're doing.

Too bad we've been going to, much less thinking about going to space for the last couple decades. It's been happening for quite a while now . And it's not a dream that people can take responsibility for their actions? We already have such a good track record for that.

Actually WebGizmos, read some of the stories about people who settled the wilderness in pre-industrial times or paleontologists accounts of what it was like for humans in the Ice Age.  You wouldn't think it was possible they made it.  Now those wildernesses are "nations" building computers and figuring out the mysteries of the universe.

Of course you can get clobbered anywhere you go--the idea is to try to position yourself so as to have less a chance of getting clobbered (just like locking your car door so it doesn't get stolen or vandalized).  I'm going to die one day--but funny, I still eat and drink and try  to stay healthy and enjoy my life.  I'm not planning on dying today.  Neither do I think we as a species should just "accept fate" and plan to not try to survive.

And don't take the animals thing so stupidly literal.  We can bring viable embryos of any animals that live on our planet now with us anywhere we chose to go--even all of them if we really were determined.  All it takes is an effort to preserve them--which actually we ought to be doing right now even if we stay earthbound.

My point is, we can't just "retire" on earth.  It has a limited lifespan and limited resources--jut like oil.

So practical and modest efforts that keep us focused on ways to expand are not liabilities. One day someone will have to move.

this^

In the long run whether homo sapiens colonizes the entire universe is totally irrelevant. The universe itself will cease to be, so why bother?

But even when you think there is any point,  who cares if ET exists or not. If they do and we swarm out we're bound to encounter them. If not, well ... then not.

The money wasted on SETI would be better spent on more productive ventures. 

The universe may well have existed forever, and there is some evidence to suggest that the Big Bang wasn't the first of its kind (background radiation and all that).  Since time (just what *is* it?) has not yet been defined particularly well, and even though the idea that the universe (or versions of it) may have existed forever may be hard to comprehend, it is not necessarily impossible.

Best regards,
Steven.