Citizen In Space

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Do we need space travel?

i'm having trouble coming up with ideas for a school project. i'm arguing for the need for more space funding, societal awareness, and interest in the US space program.

my question is - how can ordinary citizens contribute to the space program? How can professions(business(wo)men, museum directors, english teachers,etc.) outside of science(engineers, technicians, pilots, etc.) contribute to the cause?

thanks
sorry for the misleading title...

I would say a medium (10 year) term solution would be improving education in math and sciences now, so people in school could be establishing careers in those areas., and the population as a whole would have more of an interest. As of now, I do not see the need for (expensive) human space travel in the immediate future. I do see a need for much cheaper unmanned robotic probes sent off to study other bodies in the solar system. I also would like to see funding and capabilities for the search for nearby earth sized planets increased. As of now there is no way we could detect an earth sized planet close to a nearby star. Another area that should be emphasized is the study of near earth objects and ways of avoiding future impacts from a comet or asteroid. Eventually we may want to colonize Mars, but I see that a very long way off-not in my lifetime but maybe yours.
Quite frankly, right now we have bigger problems here on Earth than manned space travel. The energy problem being among them.

I would also fund more projects like the super-collider doing basic physics research-who knows maybe they will find a way to produce a warp drive or an anti-gravity device.

In the very distant future we will have to move off this planet as the sun grows larger but we still have lots of time to figure that out.