Well, yes
My previous comments came from your expression of irritation over the survival justification which sounded as if you thought we should spend any money for survival elsewhere.
Indeed, that's how this discussion started on the tsunami thread! We're not going to go to Mars to escape tsunamis and earthquakes .. and we're certainly not going there to escape ourselves!!
But it should be clear that I'm totally in favour of throwing big, big bucks at space exploration - both public and private. And since the US taxpayer foots the bill for NASA, I'm in favour of the Zubrin approach of selling it honestly - as the greatest aspiration of human psychology.
Even a 'bug hunt' does that to a minimal degree, meaning that it plays on humanity's wonderment at what might be out there. But an even better way is to promote Mars, Saturn etc. as REAL wonderful alien places out there, no longer dots in the sky. Let's maybe use VR technology, physical planetariums etc., to do that.