Whenever there’s a notable success in space exploration, there’s always some redneck yahoos coming out of the woodwork, proclaiming that space exploration is a waste of money.
Given the recent successful landing of Curiosity on Mars, I thought I would contribute to staving off the flood of ignorance that comes from some quarters, by suggesting this letter, written Ernst Stuhlinger (then Associate Directory for Science at NASA) in 1970. Feel free to tell others about this letter.