Yeah these things have improved standard of living . No argument there. But these things were not conceived, engineered, built and tested in space. They were built here on earth no?
Many great things are have resulted from american army research, but the motivating factor is finding a easier way to kill people. The usefull things are merely a bonus. Can it even be calculated how much has been spent on sending rockets and telescopes into space and beyond? Tens of trillions perhaps. I read somewhere that the states of arizona, california and new mexico alone have the solor energy potential to fuel the entire united states of america. So close minded-ness in my opinion is take the easy way out and simply rape the earth and oceans for oil rather than spend the money to take advantage of the sun. Colonizing another planet would be cool, but not at the expense of not having a healthy planet to return to.