Originally Posted by Tyndmyr
At ten years after the moon landing, NBC conducted a poll to see how people felt about it. The majority opinion was "the costs didn't justify it, so we shouldn't have gone"
Public apathy is not a measure of the inherent value of anything.

Originally Posted by Tyndmyr
One in three people in the US still can't even name the first man to walk on the moon.
One in three people probably can’t name a lot of things in this country, but that’s a reflection of the dripping mess that’s our educational system, not of the value of human spaceflight.

Originally Posted by Tyndmyr
Sci-Fi stuff *used* to be notoriously expensive to film, but CGI has come a long way.
CGI isn’t cheap. Look at the section for visual effects staff in the credits of any recent SF movie. They all need salaries and workspace, among other things.

And visual effects aren’t the only expense for a movie, no matter if it's set on Mars or Middle-Earth. Costumes, props, maquettes, concept art, countless other things. Simply using CGI in place of physical models doesn’t automatically make a movie less expensive.