Can you list most important discoveries made thanks to space exploration ?

bob bobbery gives a wonderful answer. To add on to it, NASA has long been a largely influential organization and their technological advancements have benefited society greatly for decades. They're such a boon for our entire technological life, they NASA has taken to publishing a magazine called Spin Off. The purpose of this magazine is to publish everyday technologies that are being used or developed which had their origins in NASA research - in other words, the technology is a spin off of NASA. You can check out every issue published month for the past 35 years right here for free.

http://spinoff.nasa.gov/spinoff/spinsearch?BOOL=AN...

The list bob bobbery pasted from wikipedia is only a small fraction of what NASA has given to us.

If your friend is stubborn - as I'm guessing he will be to have to take a position against NASA - there's no doubt he will bust out the argument that we should be spending our money here on Earth to help people here rather than spending it on space. I've heard that argument a hundred times and it is easily countered. This past fiscal year of 2012, the US spent roughly 1059 billion dollars on things like national defense, education, medicaid, medicare, social security, housing, and more - roughly 79% of our overall budget. It invested only 17.7 billion in NASA and 8 billion in NSF (a major source of funding for NASA projects), a total of 25 billion dollars - which represents about 1.9% of our overall budget. So to break it down, we've invested about 80% of our budget trying to make the world a better place and not even 2% trying to advance space exploration. Which would you say had given more back? That 2% has given us a cornucopia of technologies, without which, we would not have the life we have today. Even with the other 80% there is still war, famine, crime, and so much more. Imagine if we only invested 2% in war and 80% in science research - even if only for one year - where would be?

The ISS does do experiments and what not, but we don't like to send people into space with out being as safe as possible, that being said we don't have a generation ship yet that can produce results yet so we do most of the discovering here on Earth where we are safe.

Your question implies that space exploration is useless.

Can you tell me what important discoveries have came from making money..? is money useless to you..?

loaded question. for a space exploration that is very primitive considering the vastness of space, we are no where close to seeking out new life and new civilization or to boldy go where no man has gone before.

NASA has patented hundreds of technologies i highly recommend you check this out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_spin-off_technol...

Just copy pasting the contents of this page:

1 Health and medicine

1.1 Light-emitting diodes (LEDs)

1.2 Infrared ear thermometers

1.3 Ventricular assist device

1.4 Artificial limbs

1.5 Invisible Braces

1.6 Scratch-resistant Lenses

2 Transportation

2.1 Aircraft anti-icing systems

2.2 Highway safety

2.3 Improved radial tires

2.4 Chemical detection

3 Public safety

3.1 Video enhancing and analysis systems

3.2 Fire-resistant reinforcement

3.3 Firefighting equipment

4 Consumer, home, and recreation

4.1 Temper foam

4.2 Enriched baby food

4.3 Portable cordless vacuums

4.4 Freeze drying

5 Environmental and agricultural resources

5.1 Water purification

5.2 Solar energy

5.3 Pollution remediation

6 Computer technology

6.1 Structural analysis software

6.2 Remotely controlled ovens

6.3 NASA Visualization Explorer

6.4 Space Race Blastoff

7 Industrial productivity

7.1 Powdered lubricants

7.2 Improved mine safety

7.3 Food safety

That should help.

Space travel is very important. One, we used to believe that the earth was flat and when we went into space we found out that it is round, and that we wouldn't fall off the edge of the earth because there is no edge! Also, now we know what meteorites and asteroids are and we can detect them before they hit earth. Well, these are two things I learned from my grandfather, tell you when I learn more.