I see a bunch of people saying we should spend our limited money elsewhere. But these missions cost money similar to our Movies for fuck's sake. Spending money on these missions (the money goes to people on the earth, making technical stuff, it doesn't vanish) is better than spending on bread and circus, or even military.
The money amounts are FUCKING TINY. Stop whining so much about a good thing. We are talking about nations, not a single broke household.
Yeah I mean really, if the US can spend 1.8 trillion on pandemic relief, a few billion on space exploration is a drop in a bucket. And we'll probably get better returns on the investment.