Letter: Space for dreams

Sir: Your leading article "Place no bounds on our quest for knowledge" (21 November ) managed to explore every penny-pinching cliche in favour of abandoning the space station project.

Had Nasa and the politicians who fund it more courage it would long ago have become clear that the debate goes far beyond these banalities and in fact concerns the future of our species. Within the next century we will have exhausted our poor planet's resources; if by then provision has not been made to accommodate some of us in space, we will become extinct.

This debate does not concern an accountant's narrow preoccupation with value for money; it is not about some "quest for knowledge", as you put it. The issue could not be more fundamental; your paper should be digging deep for facts, not worriedly wringing its hands over the dollars involved - unless, of course, someone has discovered the secret of spending money when dead.