And why not? The car-sized rover traveled more than eight months and 352 million miles before making a dramatic landing Sunday on the Red Planet. Since its arrival, Curiosity has sent us a steady flow of photographs of the planet's barren landscape, including Thursday's 360-degree color panorama of Gale Crater with the base of Mount Sharp, a three-mile-high mountain rising from the crater floor, in the distance. It's just among the first of many photos Curiosity is expected to beam back to Earth during the course of its two-year mission in which the roaming laboratory will analyze rocks and soil and determine whether there were once habitable conditions on Mars.While most have watched in awe of the mission and applauded NASA's efforts, others are questioning whether the $2.6 billion price tag of the mission is worth the cost as the federal government slashes social programs and ponders cuts in other safety nets/Devin Rokyta, Moscow-Pullman Daily News Editorial Board. More here. (AP photo of Mars)

Question: Do you think the $2.6B cost of the Curiosity mission was worth it?