NASA's Kepler mission was successfully launched yesterday evening.  As the NASA press release states, "Kepler is designed to find the first Earth-size planets orbiting stars at distances where water could pool on the planet's surface. Liquid water is believed to be essential for the formation of life."

During the current global economic situation, it is to be expected that the question of "Why spend money on space exploration" will be asked even more firmly.

What is the answer? 

The short answer is, "Absolutely."

The next question is, "Why?"

The thoughtful answer is because as individuals, as nations, as a civilized species, we must always strive to find the means to discover, to explore, to question, to seek... to be more than our immediate moment of existence.  To fail at this is to fail to remain an evolving civilization.  And failure to evolve is the surest path to stagnation and ruin.  This is true on a personal level, a national level, a global level.

Even if the walls are falling around us and all humanity is on the brink of collapse, we must always devote at least a small portion of our resources to more than our immediate needs.  Depending on the context, it may no longer be space exploration, but it must be something bigger than ourselves.

So, as Kepler teaches us about our Universe, what can it teach us about how we live on Earth?