Letter: YA's asteroid mission "dead in space"?

Successful societies, historically, have been those that mastered new technologies—the cross-bow, armor, the rifle, the telegraph, the airplane, and in its time, the battleship. But, ridiculously vulnerable to armed drones and rockets, battleships, even with advanced weapons systems, are now themselves obsolescent. Yet Donald Trump asks for, and apparently will get funding from his Republican Congress to build a $17-20B ship (each) of a type retired by the military just after WWII! While investing in this old technology, the budget for cutting edge space exploration that among other things could protect the world from some deadly asteroid collision, is to be “zeroed out,” according to the lead story in Sunday’s Star. Our Osiris-Apex mission is already far into its journey into space—with a price tag of a paltry $1.2B. Is there no limit to such suicidal madness?