The American people will buy that, because they have already bought that. But every thing you learn about one environment will tell you about another. The problem is, they don't see NASA's program as leading there. Americans are willing to spend lots of money to get what they want. But they are not willing to wait.
Money spend on space is spent right here on Earth.
There's no better investment, in technology or infrastructure or even jobs. And certainly none better in promoting education. The reason why people live better today than 500 years ago is not because of social programs, it's because of technological progress. And a great deal of that has been funded by governments, mostly for military purposes. Science stagnates between wars, sad to say.