America is in a state of financial crisis. That much cannot be denied. But as we debate large issues such as Social Security and income tax, there are smaller choices being made that may be nonetheless just as vital.

For example, in July, Congress decided to kill all funding for the James Webb Space Telescope, the next-generation orbital observatory that was to replace the aging Hubble Space Telescope . It’s quite clear to me that this would be a monumental mistake.

First, let us consider the purely economic side of the issue. Investment in science pays off. Fields like material science and engineering have immediate, obvious uses. We must recognize that science depending solely on curiosity yields exceptionally important results. Arcane scientific theories and models can and do yield economic benefits, sometimes decades after their discovery.

Atomic theory, which first began to emerge among the Greek philosophers, eventually became modern chemistry. Quantum theory, developed to explain the orbits of electrons around the atom, underlies our understanding of electronics and is key to the development of the semiconductors and transistors that make up so much of the world economy. General relativity describes the way space-time curves in response to mass, causing gravity. The field’s first experimental tests relied on corrections to the orbit of Mercury.

Continuing with astronomy, astronomers tend to define themselves according to the scale they work on. Some astronomers worry about our solar system, especially if we want to continue expanding into space. Others observe other solar systems, trying to understand other planets and why Earth supports life so well. It’s important that we recognize how the observation of other planets helps us understand our own. For example, the greenhouse effect of CO2 is well demonstrated by gazing at Venus, a hot and inhospitable world.

It may seem ludicrous to spend money gazing out into the universe. However, by looking out into the universe, we are also looking backward in time (because if an object is far away, the light reaching us now was emitted long ago). This makes the telescope a way to probe the past and the beginnings of the universe. This is a field of study that matters to every human being interested in the origins of the universe.

Cutting funding for scientific endeavors doesn’t protect America, economically or militarily. Cutting funding for science is cutting funding for the future — for when we imagine the future in our stories and dreams we imagine what new technologies we will be capable of, what new surprises we will have stumbled onto and what old surprises we will have explained.

If America wants to remain forward-looking, we cannot retreat back from our frontiers of knowledge. If you’d like to assist in this effort, check out organizations like Students for the Exploration and Development of Space.

Zachary Eldredge is a physics sophomore.