[quote name='mykevermin']Tired of the government wasting your money?
Appalled by stimulus spending?
Want to reign in government?
End the Space Program now. End NASA.
You want Buck Rogers and Darth Vader? Find some private interests to capitalize it. I didn't say "privatize space," but "privatize the space program."
We spend a lot of money on something, and what do we get to show for it? Some photographs and two people to step foot off the planet. Big

in' deal.
So let's reduce government waste. Let's eliminate NASA now; walk the walk, small-federal-government supporters.[/QUOTE]
To start:
http://science.howstuffworks.com/ten-nasa-inventions.htm
To date, NASA holds about 6,300 patents.
Secondly, NASA receives less than 1% (close to .5%) of the national budget, whereas the military receives close to 25-30%.
Granted, the Space Shuttle program overall really has nothing going for it except the Space Station, where the low gravity experiments being performed there could lead to leaps and bounds in the medical field. With the recent addition of the Kibo Space Lab, up to 12 experiments can be performed in the vacuum of space.
With the next program however, America regains its capability to return to the Moon and possibly beyond. Now, the Moon overall doesn't sound that exciting, I understand that, but here's what we get in return:
*Training and Practice for missions to Mars.
*Additional low gravity research capabilities.
*Natural Resource Harvesting
Now, you might ask what Natural Resource could the moon possibly offer, and the answer is: Helium-3.
On earth, Helium-3 is rather rare, but on the Moon, is rather abundant. Why does this matter, you ask?
Fusion.
Both Helium-3 and Hydrogen-3 can be used to maintain a Fusion reaction (with H-3 being the more productive than He-3). For those who aren't familiar, Fusion is essentially the next big step in energy production after Nuclear energy (that is to say, it is magnitudes more powerful than Nuclear).
Reserves of helium-3 on the moon are in the order of a million tons, according to some estimates, and just 25 tons could serve to power the European Union and United States for a year.
The technology is still in its infancy, but a federal push (and budget) in that direction could accelerate the growth of technology akin to what we had in the Apollo era, potentially solve the energy problem, and it starts with getting back to the moon.
Now, whether NASA or a private company could do it best is debatable, but I think with 50 years under its belt, an Astronaut as administrator, the 2nd coming of John F. Kennedy, and maybe the Russians kicking our ass in space again, I believe NASA has this covered better than any private company for profit could.
~HotShotX