I just started thinking about it. Why is space exploration even that necessary? They're spending so much money on it when we have so much problems in our own planet..
The word necessary has a lot of wiggle room here. What are necessities? Going by the bare minimum:
- food
- water
- protection from the elements
- protection from illness/infection
- continuation of the species
That's about everything we truly 'need' to die of old age and not go extinct. Nearly everything people currently do is a subset of those needs. Space exploration can be marked under both protection from the elements and continuation of the species.