This thing has taken a lot of really neat pictures and provided fodder for a lot of research grants but what has it really done to make our collective lives better? I mean besides providing apparently gainful employment for a lot of really bright people who otherwise would have to go out and do something useful with all that brightness.
Can anybody name just three things it has done to make the U.S. a better place to live and work? Notwithstanding the really neat pictures, though my life would be none-the-richer without said pictures.
If that is the standard, a great deal of scientific research would have to go out the window right now.
It's not just about pictures. Hubble has a considerable array of instruments, and through them we have learned a vast amount about the universe we live in. And who knows? One day this pure scientific knowledge could one day become the basis for more practical advances.
Hubble has not been cheap. But there are far worse ways to spend government money.