Expanding technology to better our lives. Expanding our knowledge of the universe we inhabit and not taking it for granted. If we want to talk practicality, ignorance is never the way to go.
My point is that right now it doesn't seem very practical to spend millions of dollars "expanding our knowledge" when we could be using that money to end world hunger or do something to help the thousands of people dying from poor living conditions everyday.
It may be hard to picture now but again we have to think to the future, not just what serves the present.
And that's fine. Going up into space may be something we can benefit from in the future if we can find a way to benefit from it. At this point it doesn't seem to do us any good to go to the moon and add a few bullets to an encyclopedia.
My point is, would you spend millions of dollars to find out the performer of Astoria?