NASA Mars mission funding - better spent on paleo?

[hammeris1@bellsouth.net]

Well, like everyone else I'll monitor the landing tomorrow night and follow the 
progress of the mission, but let me assure all paleontologists on this list 
that this mission is not by any stretch of the imagination "approved of" by all 
physicists/engineers.  Many of us feel the knowledge gained will be minimal, 
and the facts found will do little more than make a lot of philosophical 
speculation that cannot be proved until a much, much more detailed examination 
of Mars can be made in the somewhat-far future when robotics will be advanced 
enough such that a large payload landing craft can be practically built to go 
there.  There is no real practical method of a 'manned' landing there - the 
hassles of dealing with the environment would undermine any work of value that 
could be done there - I don't think the general public really grasps just how 
hostile Mars is to human life, and the enormous costs required to protect a 
human being in a suit there.  Anyway . . .

. . . at the risk of driving some go-there-at-any-cost-damn-the-practical-gains 
people out there crazy, could some of you describe what the funding for this 
mission could have accomplished for your field if it had been distributed to 
projects here?  I believe the figure is around $400M (above and beyond the 
original estimated $325M.)

There is SO much on our own planet that we know little or nothing about, with 
much more "immediate" impact on our lives and who/what we are and where we came 
from let alone the planet we live on, that spending so much 
time/effort/resources at this level of our technology seems not much bang for 
the buck.  Of course, this arguement could go on and on about curing social 
ills, etc., but I'm just talking about this particular corner of the issue.

The discovery of the monster pliosaur last year has a much more profound impact 
on my life (and alot of others) than a few scraps of soil chemistry on a dried 
out dead husk  hundreds of millions of kilometers away could ever have.

What would be the "top ten" for more funding on the Mesozoic, so to speak?