I remember when I was a kid, I was in the school library, reading a book on the solar system. It talked about how the sun would become a red giant one day and engulf the Earth. I was maybe six or seven years old.

At that moment, I knew we had to start building a rocket ship convoy to leave the Earth. Even if we had billions of years to prepare, (if the human race on Earth would even be capable of surviving that long) - it would be an important thing to do.

I don't think we'll see evacuations from exploding stars in our lifetimes, but the fact that this will happen one day all over the universe and if human life is to continue to exist (I almost used the word flourish) - we'd need to not only evacuate to new suns, but then evacuate from them one day, too.

Research into space, the sea, the forest, the atmosphere, and everything else is certainly something that should be valued. While we might not see the result of it immediately, there's something to be said about the human race getting some sort of delayed gratification.

We're a long time dead :)